Erica’s latest trip report (must read!) mentioned that she spent time learning paddling at Nantahala Outdoor Center as did I. Just wondering…which other members have done the same?
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NOC, anyone?
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My wife and I took a two day tandem course there in 2024. Instructor was Will Dupree. He was great, and we had a blast!
I paddled the Nantahala a fair bit in the mid-late 70s, and remember it mostly as a gas station and restaurant. It quickly changed! By 1985, it was a far cry from its beginnings. In college, I'd leave from Durham after work on Friday, get there about 11pm, paddle (kayak, in a homemade Lettman Mark IV) the river 2x on Saturday, once on Sunday and then head back home 5 hours.
Paddled the river a lot in the 80s and 90s in open boats and yaks but never took any lessons. Bought a nice wooden Silver Creek kayak paddle from them way back in the day and ate at the restaurant often.
I first paddled the Nanty back in 1982 or '83. It made me decide to buy a wetsuit; that water was cold! The NOC store was THE place to find whitewater gear in western NC back in those days. I paddled the river many times and with many friends over the years, but back in the early 2000's it just got too crowded with rafts to be enjoyable.
The restaurants were great. The "Rivers End" was almost always the post-run meal, usually had the Sherpa Rice. Later "Relia's Garden" came along with a bit more upscale but delicious fare worth the visit even if we weren't paddling.
I did take a roll class (kayak) there way back when.
The restaurants were great. The "Rivers End" was almost always the post-run meal, usually had the Sherpa Rice. Later "Relia's Garden" came along with a bit more upscale but delicious fare worth the visit even if we weren't paddling.
I did take a roll class (kayak) there way back when.
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I never took lessons at NOC, but I knew a lot of canoeists who did in the 80s and 90s. And my tandem partner taught solo open canoe there for a while in the 90s after he moved from CT to NC. They used to have a mail order catalog operation like NRS, Cascade and Charlie Waldbridge, and I bought some gear from them.
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Will Dupree also did two days of instruction with me. He was great.
Never took classes but used NOC to paddle the river for a day with my daughter and her boyfriend in the late 1990’s. I remember eating at their restaurant and learning they were in a dry county. With us being from Wisconsin and in need of a few beers, we had to travel to a neighboring county to buy some. I also remember seeing numerous wanted posters for Eric Rudolph, the Olympic bomber who was known to be in the area and eventually was captured nearby.
My husband and I received a bit of instruction from NOC in November 1990. Then since it was off season, had the privilege of a private guided raft trip down the most paddled stretch of the Nantahala upstream from the NOC. I don't remember much about the trip...it was my intro to whitewater, Class 2-3 I believe.
Highlights: end of fall colors, lots of fun riffles and rapids, the final 5 ft ? Drop before the hdqtrs., our British guide Tony who was a hoot, a river guides end-of-season party that evening ... didn't take a camera, so the only photo we have was taken by an NOC guy from the bank as we went thru that final big drop!
Loved this experience, but going forward, we mostly paddled the flatwater streams of the Midwest with occasional class 2 stretches.
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My brother and I ran the Nantahala back in August. We eddied out above the last drop and formulated a plan that had us working left to right to avoid the hole at the bottom. My brother went first and dropped right over the left side into the hole so I figured "what the heck" and followed him. I know kayaks are verboten here but I never learned to roll a canoe and I'm too old to swim so my whitewater canoeing days are behind me. Him in the first picture and me in the second. The NOC photographer has a knack for making a class III look like a V.
I used to surf that hole in a kayak in the 70s. Back then it was rated IV. I've looked for other stuff I paddled back then, and most have been downgraded. Using current boats just over half the length of the standard back then (13'2") may have had something to do with it. But then people have gotten better in all my pursuits (skiing, climbing, cycling, whitewater) over time. And of course I've gotten worser.
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