Among the hobbies you would expect from Christian studies professors at small Baptist colleges in the South, white water kayaking is probably not one of them. Yet this is exactly what Dr. Byron Eubanks loves to do with his time every chance he gets.
Eubanks’s love for the sport began when he was a student at Ouachita himself.
“My freshman year, home for spring break, some friends took me on a day canoeing trip on the Buffalo River,” said Eubanks, professor of philosophy. “It was the first time I’d been on that kind of river, and that summer I bought my first canoe. That was the summer of 1977, and I still have it.”
Paddling the canoe for recreation, camping and fishing gave Eubanks experience on the river and a love for being on the water in general, which motivated him to buy his first kayak a few years later.
“A Ouachita faculty member had a son who had an old kayak for sale, cheap, and I thought I’m gonna try it,” Eubanks said. “So I bought his very old fiberglass kayak and I learned how to roll it, and then just really fell in love with the whitewater part of it. It’s a lot easier to manage whitewater in a kayak than in a canoe. I liked the excitement of whitewater and just went on from there.”
Whitewater kayaking is a sport with a decent following in Arkansas, thanks to the many rivers and whitewater opportunities the state offers. One of Eubanks’s favorite parts about kayaking is getting to see parts of this state that most people won’t see or don’t even know about.
“You can see some really beautiful places that are hard to see in any other way, as conveniently or from that perspective,” Eubanks said. “Arkansas has some really beautiful rivers and mountains, some of which have trails around them and many of which don’t, so I just love being outside, the opportunity to see the beauty of nature.”
This love of beauty and the outdoors is not necessarily surprising coming from the kind, laid-back professor, but Eubanks also has an adventurous side. This affinity for risk-taking gives Eubanks an appreciation for other outdoor recreational sports as well, such as rock climbing and mountain biking.
“My daughters have gotten me into rock climbing some, and I find that rock climbing requires some of the same mental toughness that whitewater kayaking requires,” Eubanks said. “Mountain biking is similar in some ways as well. They involve an element of risk and I don’t think of myself as a huge risk taker but I guess I am something of a risk taker since those sports appeal to me. I like the element of challenge and risk, so if I can’t do one, if there’s not enough water to kayak, then I can probably go ride a mountain bike or go with one of my daughters and climb.”
Because kayaking is a very weather dependent sport in Arkansas, Eubanks recognizes that it can be very difficult for college students to find time to experience it and try it out, but he recommends students who are interested in the sport to take his kayaking class here at Ouachita.
“In the class, students would learn how to safely get out of a boat if it turns over, and we teach them all the basic strokes, how to make the boat go where you want it to, basic maneuvers that you would encounter on moving water,” Eubanks said. “I always have some students who learn how to roll the boat, and some who don’t and that’s okay. The class is designed to get students confident and safe in Class 2 whitewater which has waves and features that require some boat control so you can’t just float down the river.”
Assuming weather cooperates, the kayaking class completes the semester with a day-trip to a local, Class 2 whitewater river.
Because kayaking is very time consuming—many trips last a full day—as well as weather dependent, kayaking is not one of Eubanks’s primary physical activities, but it does serve as motivator to stay active and exercise when he’s not kayaking.
“I like kayaking, and staying fit makes the kayaking better in terms of me being able to do what I want to in the boat, and safer, so it gives me additional incentive to stay fit,” Eubanks said. “For me that means cardio, because you’ve got to have the endurance to stick with a long stretch of whitewater, weights to keep my upper body toned, and stretching because you’ve got to have flexibility to be able to roll.
“I like exercise for itself, and would exercise if I weren’t a kayaker, but kayaking gives me additional incentive because when I do get to kayak I’ll have more fun if I’m in shape.”
Eubanks said he believes that whitewater can be fun for most anyone, if they are on the right river for their skill level.
“If the risk is too high, the risk becomes fear and it’s not fun anymore,” Eubanks said. “So if you do whitewater you’ve got to find your comfort level, but the combination of beauty and challenge makes a really good combination for me.”
