Shelby Johnson was a Pot Head

[shelbyjohnson]

1992, Tellico River near Ducktown, Tennessee. I had forgotten my helmet. A gent named Mike Beard pulled this thing out of the trailer and said I was welcome to use it. Everyone else laughed... hard. Seeing as how I was bound to paddle that day I took him up on the offer. Some safety was better than none. The biggest problem with the design was there were no drain holes in it. When I rolled I had one heck of a time rolling back up with a 3 quart sauce pan full of water lashed to my head.

Stuart... Thrasher's story was true!
Thrasher... thanks for all of the most excellent mentorship and memories!

[A Savage spanke]

Love the tellico, nice pic, thats pretty awesome

[canoe]

gawd almighty, never thought I would ever hear the names Mike Beard and Shelby Johnson mentioned in the same sentence, much less on the river at the same time. Gawd, how old am I, dale

[Ryan Center]

OLD!

[panicman]

lol, that is great. You look like the tin man from the wizard of oz.

[Tmuse]

I guess that was not a teflon coated pan.

[Eric Esche]

Well that is one way of keeping your head down until the last part of the roll. If you get too nostalgic, I have a Norse kayak paddle in the basement you can borrow, although it is patched on both blades. Some of my old photos show me wearing a Sears Craftsman life jacket, and I still do use a Spaulding base ball batting helmet although with new foam.

Was that a Red Hollowform? That color was really rare. Susan still paddles my black one.

Eric

[George Locke]

Quote from a sage I should remember and I do remember Mikey but this was not his-

"Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson... Past perfect-Present tense."

Geo.

[dai479]

Hehehe!!!! That ROCKS!!!!

[shelbyjohnson]

Was that a Red Hollowform? That color was really rare. Susan still paddles my black one.

Eric

That boat was a classic Noah Jetti - the first real creek boat designed about a decade and a half ahead of its time. People complained they were slow boats which was true but they were very safe.

[dog]

Shelby, that's big-time pot abuse!

[RandyJ]

Still not sure it should be legalized.

[dthrasher]

I believe that Newton White was the pot distributor rather than Mike Beard. Even so, the pot was supplied by a true icon. I appreciate the kind words concerning mentorship and memories. It's been a blast and it has especially been rewarding to see so many young bucks like Shelby turn into such great paddlers.