|
The idea for Class VI started when Dave, Jeff, and Doug went on a rafting trip in high school, and Jeff turned to the other two and said,"We should start our own company". In 1976 they were just a group of raft guides that never thought they would have a company this big, but they decided to give it a try anyways. They towed a 1956 Safeway trailer down onto land leased from Alabama Properties Coal Company for $50 a month and sold T-shirts (a red and black design with a picture of a flip at Lava Falls and the caption: "Get High on Hydraulics). They ran trips for $16 a day and survived on leftover lunchmeat. The 1956 trailer has been replaced by a $3 million site with two restaurants, and the land rented so cheaply was purchased for,as Dave puts it, "a big chunk of our behind." In 1999 the facilities won the Corridor Elk Groups award for West Virginias best design and real estate.
On the surface there is little resemblance between todays posh, multi-million dollar company and the humble river runners of 1978, but little has changed behind the scenes. "We're all still just guides," Dave says, "I remember Jeff telling us on a river trip back in high school that we had to start an outfitting company. We had a vision and we've built a company to match it. I still have a picture of that 1956 Safeway trailer in my office and we still sell those red and black shirts with the wave at Lava."
|
