Don Gentle, Liz Walker, Will Leverette, and Sam Sommers at Adventure Education Conference

I just got back form Brevard College’s Adventure Education Conference.  Each year BC along with Western, Montreat, and Warren Wilson rotate to host a small conference in the fall focusing on adventure programming and outdoor experiences.  They target a number of small area colleges and universities.  Students from Warren Wilson, Western Carolina, Mars Hill, Montreat, Southwestern Community College were in attendance.

Camp High Rocks’ own Will Leverette was the opening keynote speaker.  Will did a presentation on his new book, The History of Whitewater Paddling in Western North Carolina.  For those of you who do not know it, Will is a family member of High Rocks.  His Aunt and Uncle started Camp High Rocks and his grandfather started Camp Mondamin.  He spent many years growing up and working at camp, mostly the paddling program. 

Of course, Camp High Rocks, along with Mondamin, Green Cove, and Camp Merrie-Woode were the pioneers of organized paddling on many of our area rivers, including The Nantahala and the Chatooga River.  It was great to here Camp High Rocks come up so often during this presentation.  I felt part of something larger than myself and proud to be part of the paddling history here at camp.

Liz Walker, who was our Assistant Head of Mountain Biking for the summer of 2009, was also a presenter at the conference.  Liz is a senior at Brevard College and presented a session on “Sustainability in Outdoor Programs.”

Finally, Sam Sommers just happened to be in town for a couple days and decided to come over and see Will’s presentation.  Sam is currently living in Rochester, NY and was looking into the possibility of an outdoor job down here in Western North Carolina.  Sam has over 10 years at High Rocks, both as a camper and staff. His tenure spanned the late seventies, through the nineties.  He was an avid paddler when he was here, so he was very excited to see Will’s presentation.

It was great to have such a wonderful High Rocks representation at this small conference.  I enjoyed meeting several students who may be interested in working at camp for the 2010 summer season.  What a great way to spend my Friday!

take care,

Don

After finally getting the boats through customs and getting them back to camp, Fritz Orr has just put a couple seats in one of the Vajda C-2’s this week!  Benjamin Birdsong and I decided to take it for a test run on the lake to see how the seat placement worked out.

Benjamin and Don in one of the Vajda C-2 trial runs

The boat is so fast, it’s amazing!  We paddled around a bit, but Benjamin’s big plan was to try to roll it.  The first try was a swimming event in the cold springtime lake water.  I blamed him (the truth); he said it was my fault (lie).  By the second try, we had it down and it was a success.  The campers are really going to enjoy these new canoes!!!  As soon as Fritz gets them fully outfitted, Benjamin and I are heading back out on the lake and maybe a river.  My knees are still recovering from the bare Kevlar scrapes!  I can’t wait!

Vajda Wind 415 C-2

We just finalized the details for three brand new C-2 slalom boats for the High Rocks paddling program!  The boats come all the way from Slovakia produced by leading composite boat company, Vajda, where many Olympic racers get their boats.  Our paddling head, Fritz Orr spent some time talking with Olympic Champion, Joe Jacobi about design and construction before ordering the boats.  Joe is the U.S. distributor for the company and has a lot of experience with these boats.  Jacobi has also offered a training day for High Rocks on the Nantahala River sometime this summer.  He wants to get the campers excited about these new boats and show them some tips for success.

2004 USA C2 Olympic Team: Joe Jacobi and Matt Taylor

The order includes three Vajda Wind 415 whitewater slalom C-2 composite canoes with a durable racing construction made out of carbon/Kevlar fiber.  The canoes will come in the following color patterns: one in red with yellow swirl stripes, another in blue with green stripes, and finally and third in blue with silver stripes.  For those of you not into the paddling “lingo,” a C-2 is a two person decked canoe.  If you look at the pictures, these guys are using a single-bladed canoe paddle while kneeling in the boat.  Although the boat resembles a kayak, it is most definitely a canoe.

Our paddling program requires everyone to have a strong basis in tandem canoe before moving on to a solo boat (kayak, solo open canoe or C-1).  We want to continue the emphasis on canoeing in our paddling program.  We realize a lot of the guys enjoy moving into a kayak after the tandem canoe training.  Our hope is to get the kids very excited about paddling one of these boats on the river.

Stay tuned for more details about the paddling program!  I can’t wait for the summer!