Maybe the sport is a bit too new and changing too fast for this kind of thing- there are some pretty good recent books on the modern (post '50's) history of climbing out there- can someone recommend to me a similar resource for boating? I think a lot of noobs and semi-noobs are in the dark about this. I'm not talking technique so much but just a who-what-where-when of the pioneers kind of thing.

Here's why I'm interested: A little over a week ago I was in Nor-Cal and was looking to do some boating when that big storm came in and pretty much put the levels out of reach for my modest ability. So I went to the Sierra east side to run the East Fork Carson, a short season run that is billed as scenic (hot springs!) and long- 21 miles (plus I mapped the geology of the area in the 1980's and wanted to go back).

So I am at the put-in and my support doesn't want to do it, but then another guy and his daughter show-up and I decide to go with them. He has a long old schoolish boat, tied on to an old Volvo with ropes, etc. You get the picture. Nicest guy in the world tho. I can tell right away he is a dynamite boater and we chit-chat the whole day, him giving me very incisive pointers (politely), etc. His name is Richard Montgomery.

So only later do I learn the guy is an absolute pioneer of west coast boating, was a longtime partner of Lars Holbek, etc., etc. So here I am paddling with an icon, running my stupid mouth about my puny noob bull s-t oblivious to the fact that I could be maybe getting some great stories if I asked nicely. Point being I need to get schooled on whose shoulders I am standing on. It is all about respect folks.

(This has happened to me before- in the early '90's my wife and I were climbing in the back country of Yosemite NP when Fred Becky walks out of the woods in the middle of nowhere and joins us. Then there was the time I met the two greatest living geologists of granite standing at an outcrop in remote....well... you get the picture. Angels visits!)

I have seen and read boating novels. Some are great reads but I agree by and by whitewater boating is not as popular of a sport for written documentation. I only think there are two solid reasons for that though; Size and Demographics. Just my 2 cents.

If your looking for whitewater reads, I would suggest pinging Slickhorn. He always seems to have an ample amount of Whitewater Literature.

Look into anything written by doug ammons, he's got a cool look at whitewater.

I have a big coffee table book called "the river chasers" by Susan L. Taft. That book covers everything from the days of paddling Grumman canoes in the post WWII era, the 1950's folboat revolution, into the mid to late nineties. It doesn't include the New School, but has lots of info on the infant stages of the sport. That might be a good place to start.