KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It's summer and water sports are popular for some people but for others they can seem like a far-fetched dream.
The Tennessee RiverLine hosted its second Paddlesports Leadership Academy to help people from underrepresented communities enjoy the water safely.
Gerry Seavo James, principal of the Outdoor Recreation Design Lab, worked alongside other leaders of the community to figure out a way to bridge this gap.
"A lot of people of color... are not represented on the water and in outdoor creation spaces," James said. "And we thought about, like, we need to have some kind of leadership program that, you know, gets leaders that look like these different communities so they can teach there, can go back and teach your communities."
People get to participate for free at the Paddlesports Leadership Academy. The course is set up for participants to learn how to lead other people on trips with canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. It focuses on all three crafts and people learn how to do basic strokes and maneuvers.
One of the most important lessons is when learning how to rescue people from all those crafts while they're on, for example, on a canoe.
"People who are not used to being in the water are not comfortable, and so we are getting folks comfortable and getting folks to learn how to be safe and rescue themselves if they were to fall out their craft," Naquaina Moore, co-instructor, said. "One, [no] paddle boarding by yourself, always wearing a personal flotation device and then making sure that someone else knows where you are having a float plan. You want to make sure they know where you are, what time you get back."
But this is just the beginning. Last year, when they launched the academy for the first time, James said they had about a dozen of participants. This year that number has doubled and there are a few more events in Tennessee RiverLine's calendar.
The RiverLine is an initiative that creates a trail to run the entire length of the Tennessee River. Lizzy Gardner, the programs director of the Tennessee RiverLine, said it holds many positive possibilities in the near future.
"Last year, we did an economic impact study based on those potential new users," Gardner said. "So if we're looking at about 800,000, new paddlers, we're looking at a potential economic impact of over 2000 new jobs created, as well as over $100 million directly to the GDP."
For James, the concept for the program started in the wake of the racial injustice protests in 2020. That was the year when the nation roared in despair for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
A national movement and conversation about racial injustice in the U.S. trickled into the outdoor recreation space. From how public spaces were segregated to how people of color were allowed to go to certain state parks and lakes, according to James.
"We think about the 60s, 70s or so... it seems so far away, but it's really not," James said. "We have our grandparents, our great grandparents or aunts or uncles, and so those impacts are like one generation away. So, that's important to know that background information. Now we need to focus on specifically helping people get out that hadn't been out."