Great photos, Steve! Thanks.
Okay, 1990. Gosh, has it been 20 years?!? In March of that year, NOC played host to “Nantahala ‘90”. From NOC’s web site: “Project RAFT's Nantahala ‘90. Project RAFT was initiated by American and Russian whitewater raft experts who wanted to create an event to overcome the political animosity between these two countries. First held in Siberia in 1989, Project RAFT next moved to the Nantahala River in 1990. “
That year, 41 six-person teams from 20-some-odd countries converged on NOC to take place in this weeklong rally/festival/competiton/peace camp. “Team South Central” was composed of five people from Arkansas, and me, from Oklahoma. Some of the events held were raft slalom, orienteering, triathlon (mtn bike, run, paddle raft), river rescue, and a downriver raft race.
You folks of the younger generation all know about the Iron Curtain, Soviet Union, Cold War, and Communism, but let me point out/remind (with some Wikipedia help) what was going on at the time. Here are a few key dates that set the context for Nantahala ’90:
Jun 1987 – Reagan makes speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and challenged Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!”
Dec 1987 – Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty that eliminated intermediate-range missiles in eastern Europe
Apr 1989 – the Solidarity organization was legalized in Poland and captured 99% of their parliamentary seats
Nov 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of thousands of people from Eastern Bloc countries travel to western Europe for the first time.
Feb 1990 – Central Committee of the Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly of power; the 15 republics held their first competitive elections
So as a “boomer” born in ’57, all that space race/cold war/Cuban missile crisis/etc. makes a pretty big impact on your world view. And then to land at NOC in March ’90…smack dab in the middle of all that getting turned upside down and busted up…meeting people from Russia, Georgia (USSR), Belarus, Ukraine, a combined team from East and West Germany, along with teams from Costa Rica, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and WA, OR, the Southeast in the US…well, it was just magical. We ate, traveled, competed, partied, and celebrated hard for a week and made new friends from around the world (cue up the "teach the world to sing" Coke commercial here
).
I have a box full of mementos, and a bunch more pictures, I think, from Nantahala '90. Hoping Dale and Pam, or anyone else, can dig up some stuff to add in here, too. So many stories and memories – probably a few message threads worth. But I’ll start with a couple of photos, since they’re handy:
This is our team finishing the raft slalom in Worser Wesser Falls.
Our team at the Nolichucky for the raft downriver race. Left to right: Max Wellhouse, Kent Davidson, Mike Beard, Shelle Barton Stormoe, me, Tommy "Tomcat" Wingard
Oh, and by the way, Team South Central finished 5th out of the 41 teams – not too shabby.
