I got my first taste of whitewater in the summer of 1974 in a Sears raft on the Lehigh River. We stopped for Slim Jims and Cokes at the bar by the river at Lehigh Tannery. It was cool. I got to try a kayak in 1984. Lots of stuff, including about a million trips to some river, happened, and now I live in Morganton, where ripping opportunities abound. I have paddled whitewater in Austria, Germany, Costa Rica, Japan, Korea, Alaska, Colorado, and all over the east coast.