C-boater -- Possibly the most butch of all whitewater personality types, C-boaters think all other boaters are wimps, period. Kayakers are considered to be beneath contempt. When not crawling around on hands and knees at the takeout sobbing, "my ankles...my knees...." they can be observed icepicking unattended kayaks in the parking area. Non C-boaters consider C-boaters to be a misguided and masochistic lot.

Kayaker -- "Yak jockey," "river maggot;" In the words of an open-boater friend of mine . . . . "twice the paddle, half the man," kayakers are perceived by non-kayakers as: (1) the watery equivalent of Hell's Angels; or (2) brain-damaged river loonies, or both. Easily recognized on the river for their penchant for traveling in large, loud groups and surfing every wave or hole on the river no matter how small. Kayakers have a reputation for peeling out in front of canoes and rafts, getting run over by canoes, rafts and other kayakers while surfing holes, and/or mooning rafters and open boaters. Kayakers view all other types of river craft as slow-moving impediments to wave and hole palying. Canoeists are occasionally tolerated by kayakers for their entertainment value when they perform canoe crash and burns in every other rapid. Decked canoeists (particularly C-1 paddlers) are toleraated by kayakers primarily for their verbal abuse value if they eat it in front of the kayakers.

Rafters -- "carp" (upper Yok), "civilians," "customers," "pilgrims," "touroids," "raftoids," "creeps from Ohio," etc. Rafters are people who pay money to get yelled at by raft guides. When not engaged in water fights, yelling contests, and speculations on when lunch will be served, rafters can be seen running rapids with their paddles in the air. Often resented by private boaters, rafters provide a good livelihood for river people and give us all somebody to look down on.