Ambassador Profile – The Millers of Charlotte NC

Autobio – Jay and Samantha Miller – Charlotte NC

Our names are Jason and Samantha Miller. We live in the fabulous Queen city Charlotte, home of the US National Whitewater Center. We have only lived here a little over a year but really feel like we have found a great home.

We have lived a few places. We are both originally from the Northeast, New York and New Jersey, respectively, and briefly Baton Rouge, LA. Jason is a chemical engineer, currently working in Chester, SC and Samantha is a civil engineer at PBSJ in Charlotte, NC. We love our jobs because we get to live in the best place for kayaking. We are surrounded by some of the best rivers; Nantahala, Green, Gauley, Saluda (just to name a few) and the USNWC is in our backyard and running late in the summer when most everything else lately is dry.

We got into kayaking in college when we took a rafting down the Lehigh and decided we needed a bigger challenge. We took some classes but it was not until we moved to Baton Rouge, LA that the kayak bug really hit us. We got adopted by a great group of paddlers in Louisiana, seems whitewater paddlers exist everywhere, even the swamp. We started calling our group the NOKers (New Orleans Kayakers), a group who loves to paddle and drive together. Our “local” river, the Coosa was a mere 5 ½ hours away in Alabama, we would frequently trip there to paddle. We also hit the Locust and Mulberry Forks, both great late winter /early spring runs.

Well about a year ago, when the South was hit hard by drought we decided to visit Charlotte to see the USNWC. It was truly love at first sight for both of us. After a long weekend, we decided we needed to move to Charlotte and make it our home. We worked at it for awhile and then the stars aligned and we got our wish. We are so happy to be part of an amazing paddling community here in Charlotte.

Paddling has become a great part of our lives together as a couple. We have traveled to several countries to paddle. We have been to the Ottawa, where we had an amazing paddling experience with EJ and Emily Jackson. We also went on a adventure paddling trip to Jamaica for our honeymoon. Each new river helps us to grow both as individuals and builds a greater bond between us.

Some our favorite rivers include the Nantahala, Mulberry, Pigeon, Gauley, and the Ottawa. Jason is a bit more adventurous and is a confident Class III-IV boater. He is always up to new challenges and hopes to hit many more new rivers this paddling season. Jason is more into play boating, but does love running new rivers. His favorite spots are Lunchstop on the Mulberry, The Gap on the Coosa, Garb on the Ottawa and of curse Biscuits and Gravy at the USNWC. Samantha has been consistently building her skill level and considers herself a pretty solid Class III boater, although she is more a river runner she loves to play in little spots (her favorites are Second Drop at the park and Pop Up Hole on the Saluda). We are always up for checking out new play spots and paddling rivers we have never done before.

It seems lately that we have started teaching our neighbors who are general outdoor types how to roll and basically get down the river having fun. It’s great to get more people involved in the sport we all crave and love.

We are both excited about the World Kayak program and are thrilled to be named ambassadors for Charlotte. We can’t wait to tell you all about the amazing events going on and to host some awesome paddling events. We really want to get as many people involved in the Charlotte paddling community as possible.