Bogley

[tanya]

soitgos wrote: My favorite story that doesn't include Bo? Hmmm . . . most my favorite stories include Bo. But, I have lots of stories.

Zeus, what did I do to piss you off?
By Steve Christensen


You are an excellent writer! I hope you are writing down your many stories so they can be saved for all time. I too love storms when out in the wilderness. I of course love them more at night time when I am nice and dry inside a tent.

What is your favorite Bo story?

[soitgos]

Thanks for the compliment. I am writing down lots of stories. A few have been published in journals, and a couple stories will be included in river anthology being put together by Tom Martin.

My favorite Bo story . . . now that's difficult. You're going to hear all my campfire stories without a campfire.

Oh well, here is one of my favorite Bo stories:

When Bo was 15 he asked me if we could start a kayak program. I was a bit taken back, since we had no kayaks. He responded that he had two, couldn't we start with those. Kayaks are very unique little crafts. The first ones were made of wood and animal skins, then treated cloth. Fiberglass revolutionized kayaks, and made it possible to really make them waterproof, even upside down. Plastic injection then revolutionized kayaking again. Kayaks started to shrink. The first fiberglass kayaks were 14 feet long. Bo's first kayak was under seven feet long. They make even shorter ones. Not just everyone can fit in every kayak. A kayak must "fit." That is important so the paddler can perform the Eskimo roll, the act of turning an upside down kayak upright while still in the kayak. Bo weighed somewhere near 100 pounds when we purchased his first kayak. You can imagine how small it was to fit him.

Anyway, back to the kayak program. I told Bo two kayaks wouldn’t get us very far, but I would see if I could come up with a few more kayaks. I put the word out to the river community. I also wrote a letter to every kayak manufacturer I could find an address for. It wasn’t long before kayaks started coming. A couple of people from the Utahrafters email list took it upon themselves to help.

A couple weeks later I received a letter from the manager of Wildwasser USA. Wildwasser distributes Prijon kayaks. In my letter I had told about the possibility of using the kayaks in conjunction with an at-risk youth program operated by Carbon Rec. The letter told about how he was a delinquent teenager and how kayaking and rock climbing most likely saved him from a life of crime. The enthusiasm he felt for these activities transferred to the rest of his life, and well, he is now the CEO of a national distribution company.

He asked how many kayaks I needed. That question posed a dilemma. Do I say four or 20? In my response, I said we would probably need 15-20 eventually, but could probably get started with six, although any donation would be greatly appreciated. His response was, “Come and get them.” Damn! I should have asked for 20.

Meanwhile, donation of used kayaks were coming in on a regular basis. Pretty soon I had 20 kayaks, and Bo had a kayak program.

We started by teaching the lifeguards at the pool to roll. We purchased every instruction video we could find. But, we were floundering. About that time Kent Ford, with Performance Video came out with “The Kayak Roll.” This was way better than anything else on the market. It was the break we needed. We based our program on that video and soon had the lifeguards rolling.

We then started offering classes to the community. There was an obvious pent-up demand and we had a waiting list for our classes. Over the first winter we had 95 students. Of those, only three did not learn to roll and two of those three were over 50 and overweight. We considered the program a major success. So did the Utah Recreation and Parks Association, which gave Bo the “Outstanding Program” award for the year.

From there we started classes at the college and teased Bo about needing to get released time from high school in order to teach a college class.

[tanya]

Your pride in Bo is cute. :five:

Another great story!

I can hear the fire crackling and feel the warmth on my face as I read your stories. :2thumbs:

I am afraid to push my luck..... but just in case you are not tired of typing stories..... How about a funny one?

[soitgos]

Yeah, I get a bit carried away when talking about Bo. It's not my fault, you keep asking. ':ne_nau:'

Being a father is the one thing in my life I haven't screwed up. I was on the Rogue River several years ago and everyone was talking about Bo. I made the same comment about the one thing I haven't screwed up. Werner Catsman, a good friend, said, "Well Steve, if there's going to be one thing, that ought to be it." One of the biggest compliments of my life.

Bo has done more and accomplished more already than most people do in their entire life. To get a river guide permit you have to have nine whitewater river trips. When he went to take his test when he was 18 I think he had 90.

A humorous story, huh? Not sure how humorous this is, but here's one more:

In March 2001 we launched on the Salt River at just under 1,300 cfs. Bo was 15 at the time. The flow was dropping quickly. I was sharing a raft with my friend Shannon Bryant. Bo was in a kayak.

Shannon and I had hung up on a number of rocks during the trip, but nothing serious. So, there we were, day three below the serious rapids, perched again on a rock in the middle of a small rapid. The water was moving quite fast. Shannon and I moved our weight, jumped and pulled and low sided and did all the things you can do before getting out of the raft. So it goes . . .

We decided a cold drink was in order. Maybe lunch. Just then Bo came around the downstream side of the raft in his kayak, dropped his paddle in his lap and grabbed the chicken line on the raft. He turned his kayak on its side into the force of the water, and pulled the raft off the rock. Didn't even lose his paddle.

Wish I had a video.

[tanya]

Wow! That's more of an impressive story! I am sure it will always be fresh in your mind. Is Bo your only child? I love to hear parents rave about their grown children and for those same children to rave about their parents. Do you and Bo spend a lot of time swimming and doing other things in water? It seems one would have to be quite comfortable in water to do all these things.