I have to be honest. I did not attend a college known for its paddling. Only a few people I knew had kayaks--Will Gadd, Pete Foster and Jim Grossman--and all three were well beyond the patience threshold of teaching beginners the sport. As if to remind classmates of their unconventional leisure pursuit, their boats were hung with webbing and carabiners beneath dorm room balconies in plain view of students shuffling off to class.

The insides of their rooms also broke traditional decorating norms. Where most were adorned with theusual sampling of rock-and-roll posters, theirs were plastered with paddling pictures and littered with wet paddling gear. Always one to pick up on the latest fashions, the obsession eventually rubbed off on me. I bought my first kayak--a black, Titanic-sized Hollowform--in the fall of my senior year and soon found myself soaring off the highdive of the school pool. Eventually other neophytes and I graduated to mellow runs on the nearby Arkansas River. All this paved the way for my first stint as a trip leader on a five-day Spring Break jaunt down Utah's San Juan River.

Despite The Colorado College (emphasis placed on the "The") being a liberal arts school, its liberalness didn't extend to paddling. Even though the school's Block Plan system--where students take one class at a time for three and a half weeks and then have a four-day break--lends itself perfectly to a boater's driftwood lifestyle, books garnered more attention than boats. The outdoor program offered courses in camping and climbing, but paddling was as foreign as Chemistry to an English major.

That I didn't attend a college with a strong paddling program doesn't mean such learning establishments don't exist. Au contraire (a term I learned in French class, Block 2). There are, scattered throughout the country, a smattering of colleges and universities where paddling--be it touring or tackling whitewater--comes into play almost as much as academia. These schools are located close to waterways, have strong student-sponsored paddling programs, and have student union ride boards listing as many boats for sale as beds. To celebrate these paddling/academia strongholds is this issue's cover story on the Nation's Best Paddle Colleges.

Like your average liberal arts curriculum, this issue has plenty else to offer as well, from a look at four Northeast Canoe Classics in Destinations to reviews of touring tops and touring kayaks. You'll also notice a special Innuendos section on Perplexing Puzzles for Paddlers, Part II. If nothing else, this will give the students among you--at least those lucky enough to attend one of our Top Paddle Colleges--something to keep you busy as you daydream during class about playing hooky to go paddling. Just don't let your professor catch a glimpse of your doodles--he or she just might cut the lecture short to join you.

--Eugene Buchanan