NOC Stories (eBook)

Changing Lives at the Nantahala Outdoor Center Since 1972

Greg Hlavaty (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018
Menasha Ridge Press (Verlag)
978-1-63404-142-3 (ISBN)

Infos

True Stories of Outdoor Adventure and InspirationAll fans of whitewater sports have been impacted by the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in one way or another. In 1972, the NOC was the outgrowth of an idea that friends working together to pursue their outdoor passions could change lives for the better. Today, the center is a seminal Southeastern paddling hub. Compiled by Payson Kennedy and edited by Greg Hlavaty, NOC Stories is a collection of 62 entertaining stories by NOC staff veterans-memories that describe the center's first 25 years. It approaches the story of the NOC's inception, a time of exponential growth in whitewater sports and instruction, a time when the NOC's contribution to paddling technique and instruction reverberated around the world. It is both a history of NOC's leading role in the evolution of commercial river running and an overview of when kayaking, as a sport, exploded in the United States. The remembrances presented here blend history with adventure as they document the NOC's singular vision.

Autor

lt;p>Payson Kennedy enjoyed a fifteen-year academic career at Longwood College, Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Illinois, and Georgia Tech. He worked at the new NOC in the summer of 1972 and then began year-round work at the NOC in June of 1973. He served at the NOC as President and later as CEO, Chairman of the Board, and CPO (Chief Philosophical Officer) until his retirement from full-time work in 1998. He returned to full-time work at the NOC as CEO and CPO from 2004 through 2006. While working at the NOC, he also guided regularly on six rivers, taught canoeing and kayaking courses, worked as a ropes course instructor, and led extended trips in Central America, the Cayman Islands, and Nepal. Since retiring from full-time work, he has continued to serve on the NOC Board, guides a few trips on the Nantahala River, and especially enjoys regular bicycling, working in his pond, and continuing to do adventure travel trips.

Greg Hlavaty worked in NOC Rentals for four years. He believes in combining nature experience with written reflection, and his essays have appeared in various magazines and literary journals, including Arts and Letters, Barrelhouse, Yale Anglers' Journal, and Bird Watcher's Digest. He has taught survival skills classes and led outdoor trips in North Carolina and Alaska, and his writing and teaching are founded on the belief that outdoor adventure and nature connection changes people for the better. He lives in Graham, North Carolina, with his family. Find his website at greghlavaty.com, or contact him on Twitter @greg_hlavaty.

Inhalt

FOREWORD by Clay Courts

INTRODUCTION TO THE NOC LEGACY: Changing Lives Since 1972 by John Burton

HOW THIS BOOK CAME ABOUT by Payson Kennedy

SECTION I: Life on the River

• In Service by Gordon Grant


• March 1979: First Day on the Job by Dave Perrin


• Running Down the Upper Nantahala by John Burton


• The Early Years at the Chattooga Outpost by Les Bechdel


• A Yankee Paddler Goes South: A Summer with Donnie Dunton by Charlie Walbridge


• Walkabout Beginning by Herbert B. Barks


• Donnie Dunton, An NOC Legend: The Other Side of the Man by Cathy Kennedy


• Dodging a Bullet at the Five Falls by Bob Tolford


• A Quiet Fighter by Greg Hlavaty


• Staring into the Eye of God by Eric Nies


• Apple-Eating Eddy by Joe Huggins


• Chattooga: Racing Down Section IV by Kent Ford


• NOC Pride by Dave Perrin


• Adventure Is Made of Adversity by Kevin “Taz” Riggs


• Project RAFT and Nantahala ’90 by Bunny Johns


• Rocked by the Cheoah by Ken Kastorff

SECTION II: History of a Southeastern Paddling Culture

• A Brief History of the Nantahala Outdoor Center: The Growth of a Southeastern Paddling Hub by Payson Kennedy


• The Business of Whitewater Rafting: Growth and Concerns by Payson Kennedy


• A Legacy of Groundbreaking Paddling Instruction by Kent Ford and Bunny Johns

SECTION III: Life Beyond the River

• Wild in Winter Wood by Cathy Kennedy


• Welcoming: Two Sisters Remember the Local Community by Florrie Funk and Allie Funk (Jones)


• Guests in the Old Days by Allie Funk (Jones) and Bunny Johns


• Snapshots from River’s End Restaurant by Florrie Funk


• Maintenance by Sue Firmstone Goddard


• The Old Store by John Barbour


• NOC Store Talk by John Lane


• Scenes from Wesser Creek by Allie Funk (Jones)


• Above Bone Ring Lake: For John Dolbeare (1957–1989) by John Lane


• Authentic Leadership by Betsey Lewis Upchurch


• Office Space by Susan Bechdel


• “Hello, Jerome” by Susan Hester with Ray McLeod


• The Lodestone by Heather McLeod Wall

SECTION IV: Adventure Travel

• An Introduction to Adventure Travel at the NOC by Payson Kennedy


• A Thanksgiving Dayyenu by Dan Adams


• Americans Sneak into Mexico on Rafts! by Tom Gonzalez


• When Travel Was an Adventure by Villa Brewer


• Adventures with Christine by Bill Hester


• Mistaken Identity by Susan Bechdel


• Kind of like the Nantahala by Villa Brewer


• Río Upano Staff Trip: Adventure of the Millennium! by Leigh Boike


• Origins of Clinic Nepal by Payson Kennedy

SECTION V: Life Changes at the NOC

• Never, Never Give Up by Tommy Yon


• From the Mouths of the Converted: Letters from NOC Guests and Staff from Barbara Holliday-Evans, Dick Graham, and Gordon Grant


• More than Paddling Instruction by John Lane


• The Lift by Joe Jacobi


• Transitions by Michael Inman


• Upper Nantahala, 1974 by Florrie Funk


• Learning to Leap by Arlene Burns


• A Son’s Tribute to Horace Holden by Howard Holden


• On the Eddy Line by Greg Hlavaty


• Relocation by Maggie Parkes


• My Accidental Community by Janet Smith


• Luck by Florrie Funk


• Memories by John and Margie Zubizarreta


• Family Matters by Heather McLeod Wall and Michael McLeod, Betsey Lewis Upchurch, and Jennifer Holcombe

SECTION VI: Early Leaders of the NOC

• Horace Holden: An Appreciation by John Burton


• Payson Kennedy: An Appreciation by John Burton


• Aurelia Kennedy: An Appreciation by John Burton


• John Burton: An Appreciation by Gordon Grant


• The Other Side of the River: An Interview with Whitewater Pioneer Bunny Johns by Gerald Thurmond

SECTION VII: Zen and the Art of Running a Rafting Company

• A Chautauqua on NOC Philosophy and Practices by Payson Kennedy


• Good Things Never End: A Poem for Payson’s 70th Birthday by Gordon Grant

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX: Chronology of Events: 1971–1997

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.5.2018
• Mitarbeit: Zusammenstellung: Payson Kennedy
• Zusatzinfo: B & W photographs throughout
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Schlagworte: Nantahala guided rafting • Nantahala guides • Nantahala National Forest • Nantahala North Carolina • Nantahala Outdoor Center • Nantahala Outdoor Center rafting • Nantahala rafting • Nantahala river map • Nantahala river rafting • Nantahala whitewater rafting
• ISBN-10: 1-63404-142-9 / 1634041429
• ISBN-13: 978-1-63404-142-3 / 9781634041423