It's a LONG, LONG story...

From the early 1900's until the fall of 1976 most of the water from the Ocoee River was diverted by a wooden dam, into a wooden flume and carried 4.6 miles down river for the purpose of generating electricity. This left a dry riverbed for most of the year except when too much rain would briefly return it to a normal condition. Of course a wooden project like this can only last so long and when TVA was forced to shut down the flume it didn't take long for word to get out about the river. The Ocoee drops over 270 feet in less than 5 miles, so needless to say the rapids are big, fun and almost continuous. After being dry for so long, running the river often involved navigating around small trees and bushes.

Gary had his first trip down the Ocoee in the summer of '77'. A friend had a couple of rafts and... ...you know how the story goes. After only a short time and a couple of whitewater trips, he and three buddies founded Ocoee Outdoors, the first outfitting business to open a shop close by the Ocoee River. Gary was guiding passengers on his third trip down the river, just call it "on the job training". Since there was no one around to teach him much beyond the basic paddle command of "all forward" and the more important "paddle harder", Gary learned how to guide rivers the old fashioned way. He would run a rapid, fall out, scrape a shin, bang a rock, get back in, coughing, head full of water, guide another rapid, fall out, etc. (not always in that order).

Starting out that first summer, Gary and his buddies couldn't afford rafts with thwarts or cross tubes so staying in the back of the boat presented quite a challenge. Often when hitting a big wave like Hells Hole, the passengers in the front would just roll all the way to the back of the boat, ending up on top of the guide and taking everybody out. When running a sticky ledge like Broken nose or the hole in Second Helping, the back of the boat would often get sucked down so severely that the guide and anyone close by would go out. Gary spent many long seconds studying the bottom of the boat while it surfed in the bottom ledge of Broken Nose and he can still describe in detail many of the rocks that line the bottom of Double Suck.

Several of the rapids on the Ocoee still carry the names given to them by Gary that first summer (Gonzo Shoals, Second Helping, Moon Chute, The Doldrums, Diamond Splitter, Western Flyer, Torpedo, and others) and many of the rocks still carry trace remnants of his hide. He also named the put-in rapid on the Ocoee, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The dam at the put-in is Snow White. The Dwarfs were a series of "sections" or moves that had to be negotiated in order to run the rapid.

The riverbed and the rapids in that first quarter mile have been re-arranged over the years by floods and TVA, but the original order of the Dwarfs was Bashful, Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Sneezy and Happy. These days, a lot of folks just call the whole thing Grumpy since that ledge is the one that has left the greatest impression on their memory. While the two other outfitters on the river would launch below Grumpy, Gary and his buddies would have none of that. Youthful exuberance had them firmly convinced that they would be cheating their customers if they didn't give them the "full ride", which meant that they would all climb down to the base of the dam and launch from there. Of course this often meant that they were fishing their passengers back in after Grumpy. Fortunately, no one was hurt seriously and many valuable lessons were learned.

After that first summer, Gary was ready for a breath of fresh air. That came in the form of Beth, whom Gary met in the spring of '78' (he introduced her to whitewater on their second date). Beth quickly took to both Gary and running rivers, and although they weren't married until 1981, they became "partners" early on. Beth's guide training was slightly more structured and formalized than Gary's, but she too had her "close encounters" while learning to be a professional river guide. If you look closely enough, you could probably find at least a few rocks in the Ocoee that she can claim as her own, due to the elevated levels of her delicate skin remaining attached there.

But to get back to our history lesson, in 1980 Gary decided to move on from his partnership (good friends don't always make good partners...that's why they are still friends). Beth and he became guides and trip leaders for Sunburst Adventures, another founding Ocoee company. Natural selection quickly worked its magic and they were pressed into service as managers. With Beth's background in retail management, she was an easy pick for the reservation, retail and business manager position. Gary's love of all things technical and gear related made him the logical choice for equipment manager, river photographer, and general handyman. During the next few years they worked all positions, top to bottom, and learned about the river business from all angles.

In 1982, Gary rowed the Grand Canyon in a 14' Avon Ranger with no flips, although he reports many close calls. Encouraged by his success the year before, in the fall of '83' he and Beth returned to work a trip with O.A.R.S. as trainees or baggage boatmen. You may recall that '83' was a record high water year in the Canyon with the water peaking at well over 100,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). By the time Gary and Beth got on the river, the level had come down to around 45,000 cfs which is still a little more that they were used to since the Ocoee usually runs around 1400 cfs.

Anyway, all was well until day 6 when they got to Crystal Rapid which had undergone some rather dramatic transformations during the high water. The year before, Gary had just cheated the rapid by picking his way down the right side through a shallow rock garden. However, the high water had dug the channel much deeper and eliminated the rock garden. All the water was now blasting down the left wall with lateral waves feeding off the right side into the BIG hole down below.

To make a long story short, our intrepid heroes entered the rapid pulling hard right, hit the first lateral, were immediately surfed out to the middle and were off to the races. Gary was almost swept overboard on the first wave, but fortunately he had the foresight to create a toe hold in the floor of the boat. Beth says she remembers him climbing back over to the downstream side yelling, "were going to flip". Gary says he was perfectly calm and was just discussing possibilities. Who's memory is most accurate shall continue to be debated, but needless to say they were relieved when the BIG hole crashed on top of them and they wallowed through up right, rather than exploding under them and flipping them over. The fact that Beth agreed to return to the Canyon with Gary the next years is a testament to her lack of good judgement...err, I mean courage and determination.

As an outgrowth of Gary's work as equipment manager, he opened a raft repair business early in 1983, which was the same year the flume line was being demolished and rebuilt. During the preceding summer, Gary had been calling a guiding buddy who loved Superman, "Man of Steel". Naturally, his friend would only tolerate this for so long, so he decided to get even with Gary by labeling him "Man of Rubber" since Gary did most of the raft repair at Sunburst.

Gary claims that he was given this name because of his faith healing abilities with tired and damaged rafts, but the truth shall forever go untold. Whatever the reason, the name stuck because it spoke volumes to Gary and Beth about a need that we all share, which is to "stay flexible" in life. It doesn't matter what business or life work any of us are involved in, stuff happens and things change so staying flexible is a goal that we might all embrace. Naturally, when it came time for he and Beth to open their own business, they chose to stick with the name Man of Rubber because they knew it was a name that would not easily be forgotten.

In 1984, Beth and Gary became the first sales reps for Chums Eyeglass Retainers as well as the eastern US sales reps for Domar riverboats that were made in Italy. In 1987 Man of Rubber began manufacturing waterproof drybags and in 1994 that part of the business was sold to an employee who still manufactures the drybags under the name Watershed.

Gary&Beth chose to stay with their first love which is sales, because this allows them to work with their favorite people, which is river people. "Team Rubber" became even stronger with the change of the millennium when Jeannie Jackson, sales and service specialist came on board. Now as Man of Rubber, Inc. approaches twenty years in business, we are a leader in an industry we love... ...and that is the secret to our success. Most people in the river business got into it originally, because they love running rivers. What a pleasure it is for us to get to work with customers who are happy and love what they do. It makes our number one goal, which is friendly customer service, an easy one to achieve.

We don't get on the river as often as we once did, but our love of rivers and the magical places that boating lets you discover has not waned. You'll find our headquarters along with our hearts, nestled in the heavily forested mountains of the southern Appalachians, in southeast Tennessee. Our offices and warehouse, along with our home are located in Estep Gap, high on Fairview Mountain.

We're just a few miles from Reliance, TN, home of the Hiwassee River and its Trophy Trout Section. Surrounded by a black bear reserve and the Cherokee National Forest, the Ocoee River Gorge is just a short hike away. The largest wilderness area east of the Rocky Mountains is less than 5 miles south, as the eagle flies. Although our Basset Hound Security Team, Buster&Grover (see Team Rubber photo above) are hard at work between naps, raccoons are often spotted with their bandit's mask on and a paw in the bird feeder.

Get to know us at Man of Rubber, where we try to make buying a personal experience.

"Stay Flexible"

Team Rubber

All photographs (except for the Red Footed Booby Bird which is the property of Chums, Ltd.) were taken by and are the sole property of Gary Harper. Any use without the expressed written consent of the owner is prohibited. Copyright 2002