Summer is Here: Make the Best of It

Finally, it's summertime! It's the best season for relaxing, spending family time together, enjoying the great outdoors and making memories!

But summer gets shorter every year, and before long the Back-to-School sales will be here. So start making your summertime plans today. Fill your weekends with fun activities and ensure that when fall gets here your desk, wall and mantel will show great photos from summer 2013, your family's best summer yet.

Of course NOC offers many great adventures for active families. Below is a quick review of our rafting and zip line offerings to help you formulate your plans. These exciting adventures will create lasting memories and provide an exciting, fun day together.

"Get Your Feet Wet"- Beginner Rivers
These family-friendly rivers offer class II-III rapids that are easy to navigate, giving you a taste of what whitewater rafting is all about.  For an extra challenge, select rivers offer rental and ducky (inflatable kayak) trips, giving you the opportunity to guide your own adventure.

Heading into Nantahala Falls

• Nantahala River - near Bryson City, NC - minimum age is 7 or must weigh at least 60 lbs
  * Enjoy Nantahala River Campus featuring riverside dining, shopping, zipping and many more on-site adventures
• French Broad River - near Asheville, NC - minimum age is 8
• Lower Pigeon - near Gatlinburg, TN - minimum age is 3
• Lower Nolichucky Float Trips - near Johnson City, TN - minimum age is 4

"Make a Splash" - Intermediate Rivers
NOC's intermediate river trips offer continuous, splashy class III-IV rapids that are great for those looking for excitement, beautiful scenery and a day full of fun. These river trips number among the best whitewater runs in the region.

Big splash on the Middle Ocoee

• Middle Ocoee River - near Cleveland, TN - minimum age is 12
  *America's Favorite Whitewater Rafting Run
• Upper Pigeon River - near Gatlinburg, TN - minimum age is 8 or must weigh 70 lbs
• Chattooga Section III - near Clayton, GA - minimum age is 8
• Nolichucky River - near Johnson City, TN - minimum age is 12

"Take the Plunge" - Advanced Rivers 
For our adrenaline-wired guests, NOC offers several high adventure trips featuring class III-V rapids and promising a day of excitement you will not soon forget.  These trips are recommended for guests who have previous whitewater rafting experience and can actively participate for the duration of the trip.

All smiles on Chattooga Section IV

• Upper/Middle Ocoee Combo - near Cleveland, TN - minimum age is 13
  
• Chattooga Section IV - near Clayton, GA - minimum age is 13
  *Geogia's Wild and Scenic River
• Cheoah River - near Robbinsville, NC - minimum age is 16

Don't forget about the Zip Line Tours!

As of this season, NOC now offers two unique zip line adventures at NOC's Nantahala River Campus.

NOC Zip Line Adventure Park will challenge your skills and encourage you to face your fears on an aerial obstacle course featuring 17 fun, unique components, including the Wesser Zip, which runs around 550' long.

NOC's Mountaintop Zip Line Tour features a half-mile mega-zip with breathtaking 360 degree views above the treetops, just one of 10 zip lines leading you along a ridge top tour of the lush and scenic Nantahala Gorge.  Take a minute to check out this preview of NOC's newest aerial tour:



For information about raft and zip packages click here. 
We look forward to seeing you on the rivers and in the air this summer!

9 Things to Know about NOC's Whitewater Raft Guide School

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NOC's version of spring break is Whitewater Raft Guide School, five days of learning the skills, techniques and know-how that form the basis for professional raft guiding everywhere. The week-long course is most popular with college students excited to be securing a fun summer job while also enjoying a "you'll never guess what I did" spring break experience.

Interested but not in college? No worries, about 25% to 35% of our guide school guests are regular working folks looking for a fun week outdoors with friends and instructors. We provide equipment, transportation, food, lodging and instruction at a 5:1 student/teacher ratio. At only $450 it's a darn good deal. Click here for Raft Guide School dates and more program details.

NOC Guide School Instructor Stephan Hart chatted guide school with me over lunch today and here are nine observations I gleamed about the program:

Sometimes guides schools get "lucky" and it rains all week. Photos in this post are from a 2011 class that "got" to run the Big Laurel Creek and French Broad combo on their travel date. They paid their dues though, running a high-water Nantahala Falls for the Fantasy Island drill. Good weather classes are more comfortable, but not quite as exciting.

1) "The Weird Middle Dimension." Our guide school guests see NOC from a very unique perspective because many of them are training for future employment. This means they have to carry their own gear and rafts and listen to directions and feedback from their instructors. This leads to an interesting dynamic: our guide school instructors make the students do all the work, so this time the onus is on the guest to impress the guide.

2) The food is delicious. The folks at River's End Restaurant always make good grub, but for guide school they break out a custom, family-style meal plan. It's delicious in its own right, but the daily eight hours of raft guide training and the sometimes chilly weather work up impressive appetites. And food never tastes better than on an empty stomach.

3) It's a cool crowd. Let's face it, guiding rafts isn't for everyone, so the people who show up for guide school are usually pretty fun-loving. Stephan says "the kind of person who is seizing this opportunity to come out and play is just energetic and exciting."

The Fantasy Island drill at Nantahala Falls where guides practice running the Class III rapid over and over. No problems on this run, but not everyone was so fortunate.

4) The "Spring Break Effect." So maybe the folks who come to guide school are adventurous go-getters by nature, but we think there's a spring break effect going on too. By this time of the year, people are so happy to be outside and on the water that they're pretty enthusiastic no matter what mother nature throws at them.

5) 70 Years Old. That's right, we've graduated septuagenarians from guide school. Everyone gets pushed a bit in raft guide school, but most folks can handle everything we throw at them. We'll toss in extra challenges to our more aggressive students to see if they're prospects for guiding some of our harder rivers, but usually everyone finds a comfortable challenge level in the course.

6) Travel Day. Usually on Thursday we roadtrip to another river so guide students can test their skills in a new environment. Usually we go to the French Broad, which can be really interesting if it's been raining. Last year the water was pretty high, and we got a highlight reel of epic "learning" moments.

7) It's not all about NOC. We're well aware that students may head out West for the summer (or something like that), so we give every guide school guide a certificate of completion. We try not to belabor NOC processes and logistics, sticking instead to universal whitewater guide skills. In fact, guide school graduates that we hire go through a "grad school" when they come to work at NOC. This is where they learn all the NOC-specific systems and protocols.

Guide School isn't exactly "full service." Up and coming guides still have to earn their stripes.

8) The dreaded swim drill. Many students are anxious about the aggressive swim drill. While this takes place on relatively calm water right here at NOC, students know it's going to be cold. The swim drill is often the elephant in the room until it's over, but it often serves as the test that binds the guide school classes together. You're never "green" again after the swim drill!

9) My favorite part of Guide School was the Fantasy Island drill, where raft crews navigate Nantahala Falls over and over again, rotating so each student gets to guide through the falls a few times. The easier you make it look, the bigger the challenge Stephan and the other instructors will throw at you next time.

Notice the difference? This group has been challenged to run the rapid with upside down paddles. Can you hear the "Getting Stronger" refrain from the Rocky theme?

Does raft guide school sound perfect for someone you know? Either get them professional counseling or send them the link to the guide school webpage at noc.com. Spring break will be here before you know it!

Spring Whitewater Rafting: Five Reasons to Paddle Before Summer

"Spring rafting!" Words that should energize whitewater lovers everywhere. Think farmer john-style wetsuits, pushy, strong whitewater, flowering trees, fresh air and—more than anything—getting outside and back in nature. Yet, there's a relatively low amount of interest in spring rafting.

Sure, summer is when people have time off, it’s warmer outside, the kids are out of school and there's more free time. Unfortunately though, rivers are usually at their most adventurous early in the season, and all of us at NOC would love to see more river lovers on the water in March, April and May. So, to inspire more spring adventures, here are five reasons why this is a great time to hit the water:

Seven Foot Falls, Chattooga IV

1) “When the Rain Comes…” Historically spring rains provide the best water levels of the year. We’ve had a pretty wet month so far here in Wesser, but we’re still just over half of our average six inches of rain. As I write this the French Broad, Chattooga and Nolichucky are running at beefy flows, and we’re getting a another good set of showers. Bottom line: This weekend, and other weekends throughout the spring, you can bet it will be splashy and exciting out there on the water.

It’s true that rivers tend to channelize water, and that summer flows are more than powerful enough to make plenty of splashes and waves, but big spring runs are the sometimes the best; they're often the stories we recall years later both as guides and paddlers.

2) Supply and Demand: You know the idea: we have less demand for spring rafting trips, which translates into savings for rafters. Interestingly, some of the best prices we offer all year are for trips when the excitement level is topping out.

Examples of savings? Well, you can save over over 10% at the Chattooga, Nolichucky and French Broad, and almost 10% on the Nantahala. The big discounts? The Ocoee and Pigeon are over 25% off full price in the spring.

3) No Need to Share: Another reason to enjoy spring rafting: you're probably going to have the river more to yourself in the spring. It's likely your rafting trip will be a bit smaller and more private, and it's almost certain there will be less river traffic outside of your trip. This means you're more likely to stumble upon wildlife or have more time to enjoy waterfalls or other riverside points of interest. See the photos below for some stops on the Chattooga and Nolichuky.

Long Creek Falls, Chattooga River

Secret Location, Nolichucky River

4) Availability: In the spring NOC rafts all seven of our rivers. Not only that, but we really offer 11 rafting trips (add Chattooga Section III, Lower Pigeon, Lower Nolichucky, and Full-Day French Broad to their better-known counterparts). This is when you have the most options to get on any NOC whitewater river. If it's late-August, we're often only running five rivers, and then only one trip on some of these. So, if there's a trip you've always aspired to do; this is the best time to book it.

5) "Because it's there." Attribute this sentiment to legendary mountaineer George Mallory or river-running Lewis Medlock from the film Deliverance, either way, it's the same idea behind all adventures and adventurers: experience the outdoors because you can. These trips are different and exciting. If you've never run whitewater at high water then you've missed one of the most exciting things you can do outdoors in the Southeast.

The rivers/trips to catch this spring:

1) Chattooga Section III: The upper section on the Chattooga is usually runnable through the season, but with spring rain we may be able to start at one of the alternate put-ins upstream like Earl's Ford, Sandy Ford or Fall Creek. This means a bit bigger whitewater and more river to see.

Bull Sluice, Chattooga III/IV

2) Nolichucky: The Nolichucky has the shortest season of all NOC rivers and because of this it sometimes gets forgotten by late summer, but this is one our staff's favorite trips. In the spring the upper part of this run can get pretty big, and Quartermile rapid becomes one of the longest and most difficult rapids we run. Even if you miss a high-water event, there should be healthy flows through the spring and the scenery here is without match in the East.

Spring on the Nolichucky
(Most major rapids are upstream of this photo.)

3) French Broad Full Day: Imagine a big Ocoee with plenty of giant splashy waves, that's the FB at high water. You can also catch the rare "Seldom Seen" wave/hole that forms at Frank Bell's rapid. This enormous river feature will certainly drench everyone in a raft. Again, even if you miss a high water event, the FB at spring flows is typically faster and a bit more action-packed.

Paddling the Ledges on the French Broad.

4) Section IV Chattooga: Running Section IV at high water provides serious Class V action, and it may be the most white-knuckle recreation you can have with NOC. At some levels we still run through the five falls (scary, but reasonable), and at the highest levels we run monster versions of Bull Sluice, Seven Foot Falls and Raven's Chute.

Corkscrew, Chattooga IV

5) Cheoah: The main reason to raft the dam-fed Cheoah in the spring is because that's just Cheoah season—over half the river's few releases take place before June. Extra rain flowing in from the Cheoah's feeder creeks will certainly make an intense trip even more intense though.

Photo Wave, Cheoah River

By the way, our dam-controlled rivers like the Nantahala, Ocoee and Pigeon can have high flows too, though these tend to be mitigated by the dam. To book an exciting spring rafting trip call 888.905.7238 or visit noc.com.

Get Ready to Raft: Guide School at NOC

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So what if the average high in early March is only in the upper 50s, or if the lows reach into the 20s? When March is here, rafting season is too—at least for the aspiring raft guides and diehard whitewater lovers at NOC’s annual Raft Guide Schools.

The program is a five-day introduction to life as a professional river guide. Guides in training learn to master raft control and how to deal with the weight and momentum of large, eight-person rafts. They also get to learn whitewater features, rescue skills, how to carry rafts, the soft skills and more. Not just for aspiring guides, the program is perfect for "average" river enthusiasts who enjoy guiding their friends down the Nantahala in a rental raft and for rescue professionals looking to increase their rafting skills.

The course takes place on the Nantahala and French Broad Rivers, and the it boasts a fun “we’re all in this together” group mentality that provides built-in support and camaraderie for all participants.

This year’s course offerings begin in February and extend until mid-April. Typically guide schools receive a high percentage of college-age students looking for an exciting summer job, but there are also participants looking for an alternative spring adventure. On-campus lodging and dining are included in the price, so it’s really an easy pre-packaged spring break.

If you’re interested in learning more about this unique week of whitewater, read this discussion I had with eleven-year veteran Will Norris, an NOC Head Guide on the Class V Cheoah River. Will leads a guide school every other week during the spring (trading off with Stephan Hart—one of NOC’s only guides to be “checked out” on all seven rivers).

Will actually led my guide school four seasons ago, so I knew a few good questions to ask.

NOC guide school instructor Will Norris by the banks of the Nantahala at a 2008 guide school.

Charles: Do you prefer students to have previous whitewater experience?

Will: No, as a matter of fact many times we’ve seen students with no experience do better than avid kayakers. Sometimes kayakers have a harder time dealing with all the extra weight and momentum [of a raft], and they’re typically harder on themselves if they can’t get it right away. Sometimes a blank slate is easier to work with.

Charles: For the students seeking employment at NOC, there’s an evaluation of their skills. What are you looking for?

Will: We focus on raft control, but there are five main categories we rate; it’s not all about raft control. If we see the learning progression is happening, and that you’re working well with others—like you’ve got a great personality and that you’d be good at working with guests—well, that plays a huge part in it.

Charles: What parts of the course are the most challenging for students?

Will: One of the more challenging elements is the aggressive swim, when we’re actually getting out in the river. It’s physically demanding for many students, and it’s always cold.

Charles: That’s on the Nantahala from above the rentals take out to the pedestrian bridge, right?

Will: Right. I almost always try to do this at the end of the first day, so that students have experience with swimming if they come out of the raft the rest of the week. Here we talk about the different safety aspects of entering the water—body angle, moving through current, crossing current—we tie it in with positioning your body like a watercraft.

Charles: What else is challenging?

Will: For many folks it’s just dealing with all that weight and momentum in the boat. The flip drill is also anxiously anticipated. [This requires the guides to flip the raft to practice flipping the raft back over in moving water.] I almost always do this drill at the pool below Frank Bell’s rapid on the French Broad.

Charles: Frank Bell’s can be a class IV rapid at some water levels—is this the biggest rapid of the week?

Will: Yeah, Frank Bell’s is the biggest rapid we’ll do. Pillow, the Ledges and Kayaker’s Ledge are all in play on the French Broad, so every student in a training raft will get to guide at least one class III rapid on the FB. That’s in addition to the Fantasy Island drill on the Nantahala, where the teams do laps on Nantahala Falls. During that drill, the students carry the rafts back up each time so that each guide gets three runs on the rapid.

Charles: So the guides have to carry the rafts back up the river over ten times. I don't remember that being a major challenge.

Will: Usually students don’t know what to expect going into the drill, but they figure out an efficient system for transporting the rafts and they enjoy it. Usually several groups keep going past the three-run requirement.

Charles: What about weather? It’s still cold outside in March.

Will: Weather can be a large mental factor, usually much more than a physical factor. We let the students know what to bring and we provide necessary gear. Some of the folks you'd expect to be cold and weaker in those conditions surprise you and thrive, while the bigger and stronger participants don’t always handle them as well. We tell the students, if you can make it through this you’ll be even more comfortable in July in your Chacos, river shorts and sunglasses.

Charles: It’s good for the guides to feel the impact of weather on the rafting experience I suppose.

Will: Yes, that’s the upside of making the guides swim in cold water and in cold weather. You can feel what a guest would feel if he or she were to fall out, and it teaches you to be ready with the equipment and gear to respond.

Charles: How physical is guide school?

Will: In five days you do a physical activity every day. You don’t need to be an athlete to do it, but this course shows you what you’ll be putting your body through every day as a guide. Everything is hands on—from rope tying, to loading rafts, to rescue practice.

Charles: Do you stick to a tight schedule?

Will: We have a syllabus and a skills-progression order, but we’re flexible enough to use moments of opportunity. Pinning a raft may present the perfect opportunity to practice unpinning a raft. The first two days are the most critical learning days. By day three folks are getting dialed in, and there’s less emphasis on teaching the control skills. By then we’re fine tuning and working on other necessary skills.

Charles: Anything else you'd like to mention?

Will: We incorporate fun and keep things as light as possible. For a lot of folks it's their spring break, and we don't want them to feel like it's another day in class or at work.

For more photos from previous guide schools see the photo gallery on the guide school page at noc.com.

I’ll leave you with a photo from my guide school in 2007. For the record, I believe we all had a blast, and I think the only time I felt cold was actually on the lake learning the basics. The rest of the time I was pretty focused on the activity.

Except for the swim drill; no doubt, that was cold.

Freestyle Shootout = Free Fun

It's hump day, which means it's the perfect time to plan this weekend's trip to the Nantahala Gorge, recently-named home of the 2013 WORLD Freestyle Championships and site of this weekend's NOC Freestyle Shootout, Friday through Sunday.
Paddlers have been arriving throughout the week, practicing on the wave for what looks to be the most intense competition on the Nantahala in years. With $10,000 up for grabs, live music and big names like four-time world freestyle champion Eric Jackson competing, it's no wonder everyone wants to be part of the action.

Festivities begin for paddlers and spectators on Friday night, when NOC hosts an Open Surf Under the Lights. That's right. Practice after dark courtesy of Duke Power (supplying the water flows) and NOC (providing the lights). For non-paddlers, take in the scene at The Pourover, where you'll be able to dance if you want to, have a beer and still check out the wave action from the open-air deck.

A C1 Paddler Practices Wednesday Afternoon

Saturday, the competition kicks off. If you are planning to paddle, arrive early to register. Please note, it is likely that we will hit our 100 competitor limit this year! Don't get left out by arriving late. Classes are K1 Pro Men, K1 Pro Women, K1 Expert Men, K1 Expert Women, K1 Cadets, K1 Open Novice and C1 Open Canoe. Registration is $40/entry and is open from 4–9pm Friday and 9–10am Saturday. The top five in each class will advance to Sunday's finals.

Non paddlers can enjoy the festival atmosphere, as the NOC Outfitter's Store hosts Demo Days, with free boat demos, $200 OFF the purchase of in-stock new boats and a sidewalk sale. There will also be a Dagger Dash Attainment Race at 2:30pm on Sunday, and the winner will walk home with a Green Boat. The entire weekend is free to the public. Raft trips on the Nantahala are open, as are NOC's lodging and dining facilities. With a clear forecast in store, it might be the best weekend this year!


And, in case you haven't heard the big news direct from the International Canoe Federation in Budapest, the Nantahala Gorge was announced Saturday as the host of the 2013 World Freestyle Championships! Tentatively scheduled for mid-September 2013, the event is expected to draw more than 500 paddlers from 30–40 countries to the Nantahala area. More news of Worlds to come soon.

We hope to see you on the river this weekend!

French Broad River Clean-Up

Thanks to everyone who participated in NOC's first-ever Watershed Week! Our staff cleaned up highways, rivers and trails, trying to make sure the beautiful places where we recreate stay beautiful.

Honestly, I'm a little anxious about posting this video of the French Broad clean-up because I don't want people to think the "FB" was gross beforehand. I figure you can watch the French Broad rafting video from Tuesday (posted on the rafting blog on Thursday April 30th) and see for yourself how beautiful the river was before the cleanup.

Most of this trash was back in the woods and concentrated in one or two spots that were obviously dumping grounds. Hopefully our cleanup will help discourage this practice along with the efforts of organizations like RiverLink (the French Broad's local Watershed Alliance member organization). Thanks to RiverLink and American Whitewater for helping to keep one of Western North Carolina's most popular whitewater rivers clean.

French Broad Outpost Spring Update

NOC’s French Broad river guides had their first day on the water Monday, when they led a group of 50 down the river, and another 18 guests on Wednesday. Both groups were treated to unseasonably warm weather, and plenty of whitewater. Today, our second session of Raft Guide School Students are testing their mettle on the free-flowing French Broad River.

Outpost manager Eli Helbert says that the outpost is continuing preparations for a big season in 2009. “We're doing some spring cleaning,” said Helbert. "We're also excited to be updating our fleet of rafts with 12 bright yellow boats."

The NOC Hot Springs outpost (takeout) will be the location for the Headwaters Institute interpretive presentation on April 30. Area specialists will talk about the natural history, flora and fauna of the river basin. The following day, NOC’s French Broad guides will lead a river clean-up to proceed the French Broad River Festival.

We hope you'll join us at the French Broad this year!