As of August 15, the team of Chris and Lydia as well as all of our operations as H2o Dreams, will move to Saluda, NC!
To say you’re excited when making a major life change almost always falls short in describing what picking up and moving actually does for your life, and also in this case what moving does for our business. At the start of every year, we take a personal inventory of where we are both in terms of geography and existentially and then make a decision as to how that year will look going ahead. Each year we have had together has been in Charlotte, NC, which to this point has provided a wonderful home for us; we truly love Charlotte. It became obvious this year, though, that through necessity and desire our core was slowly moving “back up the hill.”
This obviously has an impact personally for both of us. We both feel to live the happy and healthy lifestyle for which we are advocates, we need to make the playground in which we recreate our backyard. I can’t imagine a more perfect setting to re-establish what our intentions are and we welcome all of our friends to visit and join us. The Green River Game Lands offers a world of opportunity both on and off the water. Saluda also offers an exceptional location to remain close to the metro areas that we still appreciate and to enable us to travel further distances while still being able visit our friends and family without feeling isolated from the rest of the world. It’s nice being able to choose a level of connectivity with different facets of life.
In regards to H2o Dreams, this has a significant impact of which we are truly excited about. We now have a base of operations with a true home river. This has become such an important aspect as a great deal of time is spent commuting as opposed to actually being on the river teaching. We will continue to teach our core classes that you have come to recognize us by at the locations we have been teaching them. This will, however, have a effect on our pricing structure for private and custom group classes from which I feel our students will stand to gain a benefit. We have re-worked our long-term focus of what we want H2o Dreams to become, and after speaking with community members in Saluda, NC we really feel this will be a great location to further develop our idea of a “paddle-sports leadership school.” More on that idea in the near future as we have a lot of other big news coming down the pipeline.
We are excited to become an active part of this thriving community and look forward to welcoming you to it very soon!
Chris,
First thanks for taking the time to chat with me about the course, future kayaking courses for my son.
I have a couple questions. What time do you general start..? the reason I ask I will be flying back to Raleigh late that Friday night. I was trying to determine if I would need to leave and drive half way if its like a 8am on the river kinda start. The last one, do you have any recommendation for some place to crash ? I’m an avid camper and don’t require much from a amenities stand point.
Thanks, David
Our class times generally start at 9A as is the case with our creek class. There are a few that stray from this starting time, but in general we try to stay close to that to make best use of river time. Our first morning will involve a couple of hours of off-water “chalk-talk” time.
Our day one will be in the Hot Springs, NC area and there are a few nice campgrounds and then the big one that most people go to. I prefer Rocky Bluff Campground ($8/night) which is a NFS campground up the hill. However, it’s first come first serve without reservations. The fall back is Hot Springs Campground which can be hit or miss in terms of overall pleasantries, but that time of the year it’s generally pretty good.
Give a call if you have any other questions!