Team NRS kayaker LJ Groth shares his secrets for living the ultimate  lifestyle. With some hard work and hustle, you can live the dream too.

 

Rain poured onto the porch of the old cabin and bounced off of the tents that waited for us in the field below. The Amtrak squealed around the river’s bends, shaking the picnic tables where we sat. The glow of the old 15” television screen captivated us all. It was a typical evening at Kids Camp at Riversport on the Yough, fifteen or so paddlers watching a movie on VHS to pass the time, but this night was special. John Weld, co-founder of Immersion Research, was our kayak instructor. That evening he introduced us to what some might claim to be the best whitewater film of all time. He said something like, “Some of these shots are insane. You guys are going to love this.” The funky soundtrack, the smiles, the exotic destinations, the high-profile paddlers and their high-level paddling (in Prijon Hurricanes) – it all added up to make Dan Gavere’s Kavu Day an instant inspiration.

 

From that moment I knew I wanted to travel from river to river all over the world with my friends and play hacky sack and make videos about it all.

I can honestly say this film changed my life. From that moment I knew I wanted to travel from river to river all over the world with my friends and play hacky sack and make videos about it all. The next summer I traded in my Pirouette S for a bright red Hurricane. I was 13 years old. I vowed to go to Chile and Alaska, and I couldn’t stop thinking of how one day I would splat castles in Europe. Of course I was exposed to many other great kayak films, but Kavu Day captured the heart of the sport and lifestyle better than any other I had seen.

At the end of the end of the day, all of us passionate river folk are searching for a means to live the ultimate lifestyle. We want our lives to flow with the pace of the river. Some of us get eddied out in desk jobs and literally only peel out back into the current on the weekends. Others are “lifer” raft guides and dry off just long enough to eat and sleep before being dropped off at another put-in. Some live far, far away from whitewater and take advantage of vacation time or long weekends to test their skills on someone else’s home water. Our passion for the sport motivates us to do whatever we can to slide back into the power of a whitewater river. If we had it our way, we would just be living the Kavu Day lifestyle, camping out at the Futaleufu before hopping on a plane to another wild and exotic river somewhere else in the world. The reality is that most boaters live hours from the nearest whitewater escape. It’s unbelievable how many kayakers there are in my home state of Ohio, a place notorious for its less-than-exciting topography and whitewater. Along with geographical barriers, family and financial obligations often get in the way of making a full-time paddling lifestyle a reality, but it can be done – you, too, can live the dream.

 

First and foremost, if you want to paddle each and every day, you need to live somewhere with good, year-round access to quality whitewater. As mentioned, I grew up in southwest Ohio – not a great paddling destination. I spent a lot of time on the Yough, the rivers of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, but my mentor during my teens, fellow Ohian Billy Craig, always told me stories of the Great Pacific Northwest. When it came time for college, I moved to Eugene, Oregon, where I studied at the University of Oregon (between river trips). During my tenure in Eugene, I discovered there were even better towns for paddling on the West Coast, and after graduating in 2005, I made the move to the Columbia River Gorge. Although excited about my college experience and education, I needed to live in the destination, not commute to the destination.

Now whitewater paddlers make a big footprint in the towns of White Salmon, WA and Hood River, OR, with modern whitewater heroes like the Wells brothers, World Class Academy, Isaac Levinson, James Byrd, Evan Garcia, Rush Sturges and River Roots Productions, BDP and TitsDeep all filling up social media with their Metlako, Green Truss and Little White runs, but at that time there were only a handful of committed kayakers who called The Gorge home. This isn’t to say that the pristine waters of the White and Little White Salmon Rivers were not already “on the map,” there just weren’t as many full-time boaters. Also, there just weren’t many employment opportunities for paddlers.

I’ve worked as a substitute teacher, a winery odd-job specialist (cleaner), a door-to-door salesman, a shipping assistant, a retail sales guy, a cook, a server, a kayak instructor and a raft guide.

You can’t eat your drytops and you can’t fill up your gas tank with sprayskirts, so sponsored or not, you’ll need to get yourself a job. With the growing rafting industry on the White Salmon River and the constant influx of local craft breweries, more lifestyle-oriented jobs pop up each summer, allowing more river rats to move into the area and avoid starvation. Since graduating from college and moving to White Salmon, I’ve worked as a substitute teacher, a full-time teacher at World Class Academy, a winery odd-job specialist (cleaner), a door-to-door salesman, a shipping assistant, a retail sales guy, a cook, a server, a kayak instructor and a raft guide—all in order to stay close to good whitewater. I currently work two jobs (raft guide by day and server at our local brewpub by night) during the Northern Hemisphere’s summers in order to support my new guide service in Chile during the Southern Hemisphere’s summers, but except for a few busy days in August, I can get on the river as much as I want. Two of the best and most active kayakers in The Gorge right now, NRS paddlers Nicole Mansfield and Erik Johnson, pay for their paddling trips by putting in long hours at Everybody’s Brewing after daily sessions on the White Salmon and Little White Salmon rivers.

 

I was lucky enough to tap into the Everybody’s Brewing scene as well, but my good fortune in The Gorge first began when I joined the All Star Rafting team on the White Salmon. My old friends from Riversport camp, Max Blackburn and Michael Shields, and I have been running things at the “Beaver Lodge” for the past 8 seasons. “The Lodge” has hosted and employed (among others) the likes of Brandon Gonski, Monica Gokey, Lane Jacobs, Erik Boomer, Ian McClaren, Skux, Evan Garcia, Tyler Bradt, Capo Rettig, Seth Swallen and The Pyranha Van. Now Lane supports his adventures by working as a nurse, Evan ekes out a living as a professional kayaker and filmmaker, Boomer wanders the world chasing exciting expeditions with his camera hanging around his neck, T Bradt sails the globe seeking adventure on the Wizard’s Eye, Capo runs World Class Academy, Sethsquatch builds trails in Yellowstone when not paddling vertical miles down Class V rivers, The Pyranha Van rolls on and the rest of us Beavers are paddling as much as we can between rafting trips. All of these characters are masters of lifestyle, individuals who have chosen to follow their passions and continue to work hard in order to do what they love.

 

So, there you have it. If you want to be on the water all the time, you’ll need to dig up a VHS player and a copy of Kavu Day, move to your favorite paddling destination and find yourself a job. I owe a lot to support from family and fellow kayakers, but with this formula I made it from dreaming about kayaking in Ohio to living a life overflowing with fun, travel and whitewater with home bases in Washington and in Chile. I learned in my early days at Riversport that “river people” exemplify the philosophy of the true lifestyle enthusiast, putting their passion for recreation ahead of their paychecks, and most will tell you that the sacrifice in dollars associated with living a simpler life in a rural environment pays dividends in good times. This is not to say that all passionate kayakers and rafters must be poor, but you’ll need to be creative if you want to earn big bucks in a small town. Most of us just make the conscious decision to worry less and paddle more.

“…and this Piper Cub came rolling in and the pilot yelled out ‘pizza!’ That’s when I knew it was a Kavu Day.” – The late Brennan Guth