Sam Fulbright: Kayaking with Care
Ask Sam Fulbright about kayaking and you’ll find more adventure packed into a 19-year-old person than most lifetimes can hold.
A Chattanooga native, Fulbright’s story begins on the rapids of the Hiwassee River, where he first learned to kayak in sixth grade. From there, Fulbright’s kayaking interests were stoked through New River Academy, a traveling kayak high school he attended for 11th and 12th grades. Founded by UTC graduate David Hughes, the school takes students to the best whitewater rivers and cultural destinations in the world.
During those years, Fulbright perfected his skills, paddling in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile. He also developed an interest in filming the sport. After graduation in 2008, he moved to Charlotte, N.C., and joined the staff of the U.S. National Whitewater Center, a manmade whitewater course. In competition, Fulbright placed 4th in the 2008 National Freestyle Kayaking Championships and 5th at the 2009 U.S. National Whitewater Center Festival.
Fulbright has since combined his passions by starting his own media company, Pilot Collective Media, in which he aims to progress kayaking films on a worldwide scale. And worldwide he is; he and a team spent the last three years kayaking and filming China’s Yangtze River, which is in the process of being dammed. His film, Facing East, just won an award for the Best Environmental Paddling Film at the Reel Paddling Film Festival (www.vitalfilms.com).
“The Yangtze River was considered the Grand Canyon of China, but is filling up now,” laments Fulbright. “The focus of Facing East was to show what China is losing. That battle was already lost, so we weren’t fighting to keep the dam from being built. The idea was to show people what an amazing area it was and that we lost it.”
Fulbright is now working on another kayak film, Shades of Green, documenting the history and culture of the Green River near Ashville, N.C. He is also planning to travel with a team to Chile next year to work on a film that he hopes will help protect several rivers there that are slated to be dammed.
“My passion for simply being on the water, pushing my level of kayaking, and being in the incredible places that the rivers have brought me to in my life has, in turn, fueled a passion to document these places for the world to see through well-done films,” he says.
Despite the deep issues he delves into through his films, life as a 19 year old is not lost on Fulbright. He lives in a house with several other kayakers and when it rains, he says, “the whole house gets giddy and we start looking at where to go kayak.”
Fulbright’s roots and family are in Chattanooga, a city he says is hard to beat when it comes to kayaking. He lists Bear Creek on the back of Lookout Mountain and Suck Creek along the bottom of Signal Mountain as two of his favorite Class 5 Chattanooga runs.
“Chattanooga is one of the best places to learn how to kayak,” says Fulbright. “If it rains, there are so many creeks to choose from within 20 minutes of Chattanooga.”
Fulbright says anyone interested in kayaking should check out the activities
of the Tennessee Valley Canoe Club at www.tvccpaddler.com.
Mark McOmie: Cycling as a Lifestyle
“I love cycling because it gets you outdoors and I think that is important,” says Dr. Mark McOmie, a general dentist in Chattanooga who has continued his interest in biking since childhood. “Cycling is a lifelong sport, something you can do with others.”
McOmie attributes his enjoyment of the outdoors and cycling to his childhood summers spent at a science camp that his dad operated in the Uinta National Forest in north central Utah. If he wasn’t mountain biking or working on trails, he would lead hiking groups and identify trees or explain the geology of the area.
“I think it is important for kids to get back to our roots of going outside to play,” McOmie says. “Cycling is a great way to encourage that.”
After graduating from dental school in 1998, McOmie says he moved to Chattanooga because of the outdoor activities available within close range of the city. “The cycling here is awesome and the cycling community is strong,” he says.
These days, he rides four to seven times per week, either 15 to 20 miles on a mountain bike or 40 to 50 miles on roads. He enjoys races and triathlons, but his favorite events are the 12- to 24-hour mountain bike team races. “The team races are fun because my wife and daughter come along,” he explains. “We camp and hang out with the other cyclists, and take turns racing all night long.”
Chattanooga is fortunate to have approximately 100 miles of legal mountain bike trails, McOmie says – many of which are close to downtown and surrounding areas. One popular bike trail, the Raccoon Mountain Trail Network, was recently featured in Bike Magazine and American Way magazines.
In addition to cycling, McOmie is dedicated to the organizations that support cycling in the area. He has served as vice president of Scenic City Velo, a competition-oriented cycling club, for three years. He also serves as the Booker T. Washington State Park trail director for the Chattanooga Chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA), the largest nonprofit mountain biking organization in the Southeast.
Recently, SORBA has partnered with Enterprise South Industrial Park, site of Volkswagen’s new plant, to develop 12 miles of mountain bike trails throughout the property. The group is also expanding mountain bike trails at Booker T. Washington State Park.
For information about cycling opportunities in Chattanooga, McOmie recommends checking out the activities of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club at www.chattbike.com.
Kasia Pietras: Rock Climbing Queen
When it comes to climbing, Chattanooga rocks. Just ask Kasia Pietras, a world-class rock climber from Chicago who moved to Chattanooga three years ago to be surrounded by the rocks and cliffs of the Southeast.
Pietras, 21, first visited Chattanooga to compete in the Triple Crown Series, a climbing competition held at three of the top climbing sites in the Southeast, which includes the Stone Fort site in Chattanooga. Sold on the rock climbing opportunities in the area, she decided to move to Chattanooga to study at UTC.
“There are probably 30 or more different climbing areas within a four-hour radius of Chattanooga – that is unique,” says Pietras, who has competed in the Triple Crown Series five times and was the overall winner of the Women’s Open division in 2009.
Erosion has left the southern mountain ranges rounded and rolling, a masterpiece of exposed rock, ridges and canyons that call to climbers. Dubbed the “cradle of climbing,” Chattanooga is home to infamous rock climbing areas such as Sunset Rock on Lookout Mountain, The Tennessee Wall in Prentice Cooper State Forest, Stone Fort (aka Little Rock City) on Mowbray Mountain and Foster Falls on Monteagle Mountain.
Pietras began climbing at an indoor gym when she was 8 years old, eventually joining the U.S. Youth Climbing Team for five world competitions in France, Bulgaria, Scotland, China and Austria. However, she didn’t climb outdoors on real rocks until she was a teenager. After her first outdoor climb at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, she was hooked; she spent most weekends driving to Kentucky to climb and spent her summers there.
“Climbing isn’t meant to be just indoors,” she says. “The ultimate goal is to enjoy climbing outdoors on real rock.”
Pietras enjoys bouldering best, a style of rock climbing undertaken without ropes. Bouldering “problems,” so called because they involve short climbing problems to solve, are typically 10 feet high and climbers use a crash mat and spotter to break any falls.
Chattanooga’s mild climate allows for year-round rock climbing, according to Pietras. While bouldering is better in colder temperatures, traditional climbing and sport climbing – variations of climbing with ropes and anchors – are typically best during warmer months.
Pietras hopes to travel the world and climb, but in the meantime, she enjoys conquering the landscape of the Southeast and looks forward to completing college in two years. She works at the Tennessee Bouldering Authority (TBA), an indoor bouldering and rock climbing facility in Chattanooga, and coaches a youth and junior team there.
Pietras encourages anyone interested in climbing to begin with rock climbing lessons with a trained climber or at a rock climbing gym.
Terry Presley: Living in Hang Gliding Heaven
Terry Presley’s first hang gliding experience was in 1972 when, after reading in National Geographic magazine about one of the first hang gliding events in California, he and his friends made their own hang glider out of bamboo and plastic and took turns pulling one another until each boy was airborne. “That was enough to hook me for life,” Presley recalls of those days as a 17 year old in Lake Providence, La.
“I have loved airplanes ever since I can remember,” says Presley, 55, a Delta pilot who flies 747s to Asia several times a month. “My father started out as a crop duster and airplanes were something I saw every day. But when I saw hang gliders, I remember thinking that has to be the best kind of flying there is.”
In 1977, Presley bought his first factory-built glider. It was used and had been crashed, but he repaired and flew it. Through the years, he made many trips to Chattanooga to fly hang gliders, but his visit in 1992 was pivotal. “I brought Linda, who is now my wife, to Chattanooga for a two-week flying vacation to see if she liked flying,” says Presley. “She fell in love with the sport and became a hang gliding instructor and we never left Chattanooga.”
According to Presley, the favorable weather conditions and topography in Chattanooga make it a mecca for hang gliding pilots. As a result, the area is home to the largest hang gliding school and resort in the United States, the Lookout Mountain Flight Park in Rising Fawn, Ga., as well as one of the largest hang gliding clubs in the United States, the Tennessee Tree Toppers, located in the Sequatchie Valley.
Typical hang gliding altitudes in this area can reach 6,000 to 8,000 feet; however, Presley has flown to more than 20,000 feet out West where the dry climate – and higher cloud base – permits much higher flights.
Cross country flying was Presley’s ultimate goal, and he began competing in order to learn from other hang gliding pilots and challenge himself. In 2001, he was on the U.S. World Team competing in Spain. In 2003, he spent five weeks competing in Australia, flying in challenging conditions. After that experience, he declined an invitation to join the 2005 U.S. World Team competing in Australia. “Flying in Australia is not for the faint of heart,” he says. “It is extreme flying: hot, dry and out in the middle of nowhere.”
Presley’s recent claim to fame is being the first person to fly from the Lookout Mountain Flight Park to the Tree Topper’s launch site at Henson’s Gap in the Sequatchie Valley and back, a round-trip flight of 65 miles. “Most days, if you launch in Henson, you can fly with the wind to Lookout Mountain,” explains Presley. “But coming back, you are typically going against the wind, which is what makes it more difficult. I tried and succeeded with a more unconventional approach of doing the flight in reverse.”
Introductory flight lessons and tandem flights with an instructor are the best ways to try hang gliding, says Presley. However, he thinks the sport should be taken seriously. “I would only encourage hang gliding if someone has a true interest in it,” he says. “It should truly be a commitment.”
Word is out about Chattanooga and the outdoor recreation opportunities that can be found here. More and more, people are choosing to live in the area simply for that reason. Mark McOmie echoes the sentiments of all who cherish the Scenic City’s outdoor resources: “Chattanooga is a great outdoor recreation area,” he says. “That is why I live here – to be outside.”