Got Protection?

No, not that kind of protection ... this kind



Foot protection!

It’s that time of year when winter has faded away and the rivers are filling up with excited kayak, canoe and raft paddlers again. It’s time for you to enjoy the thrill of the whitewater rapids. Hopefully you have been schooled on the importance of the essentials for paddling: boat, paddle, helmet, personal floatation device and sprayskirt (for kayakers). I would like to add another river essential, for your own personal safety and comfort, proper footwear.

Studies and river stories have shown that the place where many injuries occur is on shore while either scouting or running down the river back to help rescue someone or something. It is also essential to have proper footwear when you encounter an “out of the boat experience” yourself and have to perform your own rescue. One of the best ways you can prevent injuries in these situations is to wear sturdy but comfortable booties or other supportive footwear designed for watersports.

To help you better protect yourself from injury and provide for a more comfortable trip down the river, we looked at several good options for your feet. We have chosen the best models for kayakers, canoeists and rafters. The footwear was tested in various boats on the Nantahala Outdoor Center’s local rivers such as the Nantahala River, Ocoee River, Chattooga River, Cheoah River, Pigeon River, Nolichucky River and French Broad River. Because there is footwear for a broad range of paddlers, I will give my overall impression of each one then include information about their best specific use(s).

To read the full review, Click Here to go to the Outfitter's Store blog.

One of My Favorite Places, NOC Summer Camp

By Palmer Miller - a former NOC Teen Leader and camper.


As part of a photo-journalism assignment for New River Academy Palmer chose to write about one of her favorite places, the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Sitting on the bank of the Nantahala River, the NOC has been working with paddlers and rafters for the past 30 years, through its outdoor programs and camps. Its excellent service is world-renowned and people continuously return. Many expert paddlers are born at the kid, teen, and adult kayak camps and programs.

Sam Fulbright, a New River Academy alumnus, professional photographer, and an avid playboater, attended two of the NOC teen kayak camps. The beginner camp gave him more confidence that backed up what he already knew. The intermediate camp helped him delve more into the sport of freestyle kayaking, and by the end he was hitting stern squirts and cartwheels. He believes the “NOC was [really big in] solidifying my boating skills.

I found that their programs gave me a lot of confidence in my kayaking and they worked really hard to get all the fundamentals of kayaking built up, and built up well.” For the experienced paddlers to the rookies who are scared to run Nantahala Falls, the Nantahala Outdoor Center is the perfect place to have a good time and life-changing experience.

Click on the following links to find out more about:
NOC Kids and Teens Camps
The Exploits of Palmer Miller
NOC's Summer Photo Course with New River Academy
New River Academy

Three Lines through Nantahala Falls

Rob Barham does a presentation for AWC

Rob recently headed down to Hotlanta to give a talk about proper creeking techniques to the Atlanta Whitewater Club members. He met up with a fun and excited crowd and gave his presentation with a lively discussion challenging paddling dogmas. Some say his presentation was in revival style, and told the members of AWC

"It is time to free yourself from paddling dogmas!"

As always, Rob can find a way to make instruction fun! At the end of the presentation, Rob gave away shirts and DVD's to excited participants. According to the Vice President of AWC Chuck Spornick,

"A good time was had by all."

To see more photos and info from Rob's presentation, check out Chuck's photo site.

Come Explore The Dominican Republic This Winter

Daylight savings time is over and the drought continues in the Southeast. These two things along with the rough and tumble economy could bring one down, but don't give up too quickly we have the perfect cure. You need to take a paddling trip, and it just so happens we have the perfect place, the Dominican Republic.



We are looking forward to our second season in the Dominican Republic after two Pilot trips last year. We ran our first ever commercial trip in January 2008, followed up by an advanced Teen group in June. In September we returned once more to teach a swift water rescue, and first-aid course to our Dominican counterpart Rancho Baiguate. Needless to say we spent quite a bit of time there this past year and are looking forward to our 2009 season with some new runs to add to our itinerary.



So why should you come to the Dominican Republic with us this winter? Because you can't afford not to that's why. Plane tickets to the DR are under five hundred dollars from the southeastern US and depending on how far south you are they could be really cheap. The Ranch where we stay is only 45 minutes from the Santiago International Airport (STI) and is on the banks of the Jimenoa river. Just think you can leave home in the morning take a short flight, go paddling in the Dominican Republic and take out at the door of your room all in one day.








Not only are we offering kayaking trips but we can accommodate non paddling friends and family as well, with a rafting or multi-sport adventure. Rancho Baiguate offers everything from horseback riding to multi-day trekking trips and of course the best rafting trips in the Caribbean.




We are the only outfitter running trips in the DR. Our partner Rancho Baiguate has been rafting in the DR for over ten years. We are still discovering new runs all the time. Paddling is still very new in the DR so there are many logistical challenges; that's where we come in, all you have to do is buy your ticket pack some clothes and let us take care of the rest.

The trip dates and full pricing details are on the NOC website just click here.

Why we love the southeast

The southeast is great. We have bologna biscuits. We have coca-cola. We have lots of creeks. Here's some photos of what the instructors have been up to the past two weeks.

This is the Chattooga at .4 feet.
Surprisingly, everything is still runnable. To the left, Herm finds low-water Seven Foot to be more like Six Foot. To the right, Israel shimmies under the log at center crack. It's definitely a skinny man's move.There's nothing better than paddling the lake out in the dark with friends.

Here's a little creek that flows into Jocasse. Heck of a paddle in. Heck of a hike up. But the slides are heck of a lot of fun - especially this one. Thank you Wayne Gentry.

And then it rained -some sort of hurricane or something. Some of us headed over to Joyce Kilmer to stare at the really big trees. We did some kayaking too. There was a big slide. We like big slides. Below, Sean Corbett refuses to stop for red lights in the Hallway.

Speaking of big slides....we found some more on the East Fork of the Tuck the next day.

On the left, Michael Curtis disengages the flux capacitor as he reaches 88 miles per hour. To the right, Jason Aytes stares into the mouth of the beast, while Rob Barham gets creative with a tight line. Below, Joe Ravenna punishes a rapid into submission. Later,
the creek punished the boaters into submission as they portaged around a wood-choked monster sieve. (Top picture) Thanks for checking in. See ya where the water is.

The Big Jump

Part of the fun of kayaking is the challenge. Nothing feels better than running a hard rapid successfully. It doesn't really matter if "hard" is class three or class five for you - the joy (and relief) of styling a hard rapid is universally shared by all boaters.
It is our contention that on the five scale rapid rating system, the jump between class 2 and 3 is the largest. Class one and two rapids are very similar and often difficult to differentiate. Think about paddling the Nantahala - most of the time you're not thinking about whether that rapid you paddled was class 1 or class 2 - they're pretty similar. When you get to class 3 Nantahala Falls though it's pretty easy to tell that the rapid is much bigger/harder than everything else you've paddled. For beginners, the jump from class 1/2 to class 3 is often a very big one. This is primarily because they're now facing a larger rapid with more serious consequences. Not to say that there aren't consequences to messing up a class 1/2 rapid, but the consequences are much greater to messing up a class 3 rapid. Deciding to run a class three rapid for the beginner therefore is often a difficult decision because they must factor the consequences into their decision making process- something they haven't really had to do on class 1/2.

Once a boater gains experience though factoring the consequences aspect into the decision-making process it becomes easier to make future decisions, for instance stepping up from class 3 to class 4 rapids. We have plenty of boaters in our beginning clinics agonize over the decision to run or walk Nantahala Falls. We then see those same boaters in our intermediate clinics spend only a fraction of the time agonizing over the decision to run a class 4 rapid. The same boater that spent 20 minutes deciding to run their first class 3 rapid now often spends less than five deciding to run their first class 3+/4.

This is not to say that the decision to step up from class 3 to 4 should be a cursory one. We are merely saying that it's often easier for paddlers to decide to run their first class 4 rapid than it is to run their first class 3 rapid. This can be attributed primarily to the fact that a boater has very little experience when he/she makes a decision to run that first class 3 rapid, and much more experience when they decide to run their first class 4 rapid.

The same applies to the jump between class 4 and class 5.0. Class 5 is certainly harder than class four and entails greater consequences, but the jump comparatively isn't as great as the leap from class 2 to class 3. There's a much bigger gap between running Surfer's and Nantahala Falls than there is between running Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein. (The jump between class 4 and 5.2, well, that might be another story.)

The long and short of it is, if you're a beginner, it's ok to take your time deciding to run a class three rapid - it is indeed a big step up. For the advanced boater paddling with beginners, be aware of this. Don't downplay a class 3 rapid because it's "only class three". For the beginner, deciding to run a class three rapid is a big step because for the first time they're factoring in consequences to making a mistake. They should be given all the time they need to make this decision.