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 In defense of NOC my thoughts from years ago.................... New
- Forum: BoaterTalk
Re:  Why are people bitter at NOC? Not defending just curious. Snakenjahbone New
Date: Jul 12 2008, 21:50 GMT
From: knarf
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I will start this comment by stating that I have not been on the Nanty in 3 years and not paddled it more than once or twice with beginners for a lot more years than that.
I should also qualify this with the fact that I am a small business owner and my perspective is based on that as well as the fact that I am a kayaker.
When I started boating in my late 30's I was impressed by all that the NOC did for private boaters without any expectation of payment. They gave a competitive discount in their store, allowed the private boaters to use their takeout and restroom/changing facilities for free and would run you up on shuttle if you couldn't hitch hike before they got there. I marveled at how many "free" services they offered to the private boater that many other locations demanded payment for, and was happy to be in an outdoor recreation environment that was able to use a different business model than the "regular" world. I also boated with a lot of retired business people that also were pleasantly surprised that you could go to the river and not be nickeled and dimed to death.
Things may have changed and I am not a bit surprised. I suspect that the old founders that did it for the love of the sport have moved on, died or sold to new investors that are viewing this as a business enterprise rather than a passion. Instead of criticizing them for treating it like a business I believe that we should all give them a big thanks for the things they were willing and able to do in the past and accept the fact that the boating world has changed just like the rest of the world. After all there is no free lunch.
I bet if you could see their Balance sheets and P&L's for the last 3 or 4 years you would wonder why they bothered to stay open. I know that kayak purchases are off and all you have to do is drive by the river to see that their raft business is off, not to mention how much it must cost to feed those antiquated buses they use.
With regards to the Cheoah, I think the community should ask what the NOC did to help get the river open rather than criticize them for the cluster fuck the first year. I spent 3 hours on my first trip down waiting on the shuttle busses, but I was in good company, EJ, Clay Wright and a lot of other pro boaters put up with the mess to have the chance to boat a new river in our backyard.
As far as changing the river bed for play, I am curious as to just how they have justified this in other locales as prior posters have asked above. If the tree hugging flower children of Boulder can live with adding rocks to the river why shouldn't the locals in Wesser be allowed?
(I'm a Colorado native so I can throw stones) This being said, I fully agree with the above posts about opening the flood gates of river modifications, better to live without it than let the developers that have ruined so much in nature have their way with the rivers.
Final comment, I believe that we are currently going through an economic change in this country like none of us have ever seen before, and we will look back on these times as the good old days, so go out and boat while you can.
This is my 2 cents.
Frank
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