Bought my first boat in .77, a 17-foot aluminum Michicraft canoe, the finest barge - ah, I mean boat - ever to float. Bought my first kayak in .84, a Phoenix Wildfire, the finest barge - ah, I mean boat - ever to float. Taught myself how to roll, popping up after 12 wet exits. My first ww decent was down the Lower Yough in April of .85 at 3.5 ft. This was the trip that earned me the nickname Wong Way (almost used it as my RBP name) having errantly run several lines I was advised not to take. I paddled like crazy that year, making the 7-hr drive down to the Yough about twice a month. I finished my rookie season that October on the Ottawa R., Ontario with an epic Wong Way surf in the mighty Phil.s Hole.

I haven.t been able to get out on the rivers very much over the past 11 years. Last year I opened the season on the Cheat and Top Yough and ended it on the Black and the Bottom Moose, with 2 Lower Yough trips in between for a big year of 8 river days. The Upper Yough and the Gauley are still on my *to do* list, but a couple trips a year sharpen only my memory of how rusty I.ve become and not my skills.

As I posted previously, I paddle a frog-green Diablo and look like Jackie Chan, only different. If you see me on the river, paddle over and say hi. I.d like to meet you. You may also see me this year in a blue Topo Duo with my daughter (if she is interested, I hope, I hope), who looks like me, only different.

Oh, yes, and I also do some tripping/touring in a tandem sea kayak (a red Valley Aleut Sea II) with my daughter riding in the center cargo hatch and my wife riding - ah, I mean paddling - in the front.

-curt-