Join Us to #OptOutside

Last year our friends at REI started a movement for people to reconnect outdoors over the holidays. REI closed their stores on the day after Thanksgiving, one of the most popular shopping days of the year, paid their 12,000+ employees to spend time outside, and invited America to join in.

 

Here at American Whitewater we enthusiastically join our partners at REI in the belief that A Life Outdoors Is a Life Well Lived. Whether you’re a little kid building up the courage to run Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon for the first time or an experienced paddler who has been enjoying the Upper Gauley for decades, anyone who spends significant time on the water knows that time outdoors makes us healthier and happier.

 

We encourage all our members to join in building on the momentum of #OptOutside to start a new tradition the day after Thanksgiving, a tradition that is all about sweet boofs, sick lines, a great surf, or just laughing and enjoying the day with friends on a mellow class II run.

 

Here are a few of the places you might find our staff and members out enjoying a day on the water:

 

California: Join us on the Tobin Reach of the Feather River which, as of 2016, has boatable flows year-around. We have literally brought this dewatered river back to life along with dozens of others in California.

 

Southeast: Do a rain dance and hope for the return of flows to all the great runs on the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest we are working to protect as wild and scenic. Even if flows are too low for boating, there are still plenty of places to go for a hike and enjoy a river.

 

Pacific Northwest: As winter storms pound the region with record rainfall dozens of opportunities abound. Many make it a tradition to enjoy the Olympic Peninsula Rivers where we are working to designate 19 of the major river systems as Wild and Scenic.

 

Colorado: There's nothing like enjoying year-round flows on the Shoshone section of the Upper Colorado near Glenwood Springs, where we are working to protect instream flows in the river with new Recreational Water Rights. 

 

More thoughts from REI CEO Jerry Stritzke on the REI Blog.