{"id":11767,"date":"2017-02-17T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=11767"},"modified":"2017-02-08T10:48:50","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T18:48:50","slug":"this-is-immersion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2017\/02\/17\/this-is-immersion\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Immersion"},"content":{"rendered":"

My classmates stared at the looping images of swirling water on the projector screen. Water particles flowed straight and smooth until meeting an obstruction where they quickly erupted into fantastic disarray. Next slide: arrows pointing in the direction of flow around a river bend, but then turning sideways and upstream as they round the corner. Final slide: a cartoon depiction of a kayaker, immediately recognizable as William Nealy, turning in a hydraulic.<\/p>\n

For the other students, these concepts challenged their understanding of fluid behavior. For me, these ideas not only made sense\u00a0but also initiated a physical response that felt like my chair crossing the eddy line. Questions arose and I sat back and smiled. Fifteen years of river guiding suddenly seemed like a decent prerequisite for graduate school in River Engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dirtbag is a label we throw around for those who seek as many river days as possible. The word connotes a selfish lifestyle\u2014pursuing the most pleasure through adventure with minimal care to society\u2019s stereotypical core values, like buying homes and cars or having stable employment. However, the label diminishes the value of our time spent pursuing our passion, dreams, and adventure. The draw to water, to rivers, steered my travel during my dirtbag days, but I never thought of it as gaining expertise or an immensely valuable perspective until now.<\/span><\/p>\n

As river guides, we spend most of our day teaching outdoor skills and facilitating a positive interaction with the river. Days begin by greeting guests who have arrived from anywhere and everywhere and orienting them to the basics: staying warm while wet, understanding hazards and safety measures, and participating in paddling the raft through a rapid. We silently evaluate each individual in our raft or class, and we change our language and methods to accommodate different learning styles. As we float, we read the water\u2019s current and make split-second decisions. Every day with the river\u2014even the same river over and over again\u2014becomes a new experience.<\/p>\n

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I found a love for teaching in guiding. From facilitating a student\u2019s first outdoor experience to connecting physics, history and biology to river systems\u2014I explained concepts using the river. At the same time, the river taught me about the world. I saw communities who relied on the river\u2019s flow to power their lights or wash their laundry. I rode in canoes on Amazonian corridors that provided sole access to remote field stations. I met Native Americans who traditionally subsisted off of the river\u2019s salmon.<\/p>\n

Fifteen years immersed in the dynamics of a natural resource actually turns out to be a lot of time understanding the physical, biological and social systems intertwined in every river system. It was a full immersion\u2014in water, culture, hydrology, geography, psychology, adventure, and experience. And it gave me invaluable perspectives and a global network of river case studies and connections.<\/span><\/p>\n