True Stories of Outdoor Adventure and Inspiration All 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. 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. IN SERVICE By Gordon Grant First, all recollections are fictions: We draw them from events that actually happened, but through years of recalling and burnishing selected facts, we turn the events into poetic truths that give an impression of what actually occurred at the time. Storytelling is an art form, one of the earliest, and there’s much to be learned from sharing stories. So I believe that the storytellers are telling their truths, but that the facts have been slipping away quickly down the river of time. So how should one remember what the NOC has meant to him or her? First, tell a story, small or grand, of an event that happened to you during your time at the center. Just tell it, brothers and sisters, tell it all. Second, reflect on that story: Why have you carried it with you all these years? What did you learn from that event and how have you used it in your life? There’s an argument that rages across the field of experiential education: Are these incredible experiences that occur out on the rivers and in the mountains generalizable? And do they really cause people to make changes in their lives? The field of outdoor education has lots of practitioners who deeply believe this but have a hard time proving it. Most of us who worked at the NOC for any period of time in the past 40 years―certainly those willing to put down their memories in writing here―would probably say, “Yes, my time at the NOC changed my life. I am different from what I would be had I not worked there for 1, 3, 5, or 15 years.” Is that so? Then you should be able to tell us what happened there and how it changed you. Here’s my recollection. The Story: Chattooga, Section IV, late 1970s I was coiling up the rope below Seven-Foot Falls when I noticed one of the rafts pulling over to the river’s left shore. Everyone in the raft was looking down at someone on the floor, and the guide was motioning to me. Broken leg: A big male friend had fallen on a woman’s extended leg, and it was clear that we would have to carry her out. So, using one of the ineffective inflatable splints of the time, we made her as comfortable as we could, rigged a stretcher out of cut poles and life jackets, and proceeded to thrash and carry her up the river’s left side to Woodall Shoals, about 0.5 mile upstream. I think it was the first trip I’d been on that required a carry-out.