# Herm Hoops has run his last rapid



## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

I just watched the Salad Days documentary that NRS sponsored. Glad they made it.






Peace to his family and all who knew and loved him.


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

On my desk, where I can see it every day, "When you fall, fall forward. You'll save yourself a step" Herm Hoops

Float on, river runner, float on


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## DidNotWinLottery (Mar 6, 2018)

Beautiful video


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## GeoRon (Jun 24, 2015)

Bummer. 

A project I never finish was to assimilate Herm's data and attempt a database detailing the chronology of raft companies and prices. His data was to interface with a database system I wrote for boat swaps. In time, it was to be a Herm Hoops Blue Book of boat history and boat prices.

Not intending to make this sad moment about me since I never really knew Herm, it is an introduction to the below screenshot of Herms data in a subdirectory structure I constructed in about 2015 containing his scanned documents that he provided to me. Herm really was attempting to do as described by Roy Webb in the message Andy posted to notify us.

RIP Herm. Sorry I dropped the ball.


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## GeoRon (Jun 24, 2015)

To the Management of Mountain Buzz (and Buzzer's),

Currently, the University of Utah Special Collections at the Marriott Library is the repository of Herm's legacy documenting the history of "rafts" and "rafting". My attempts to connect to that online archive fails.

I'm not sure to any extent that what Herm entrusted me with is only one or otherwise many snapshots of his extensive compilation. I know there was much more in depth potential of what he had accumulated had I the commitment to replicate(pay for) "white papers" and "sales brochures" which I assume are archived at UofU.

It was actually in the "sales brochures" where I would find the data I required for my project but I had too many irons in the fire and I committed to full retirement. Again, sorry Herm.

The biggest bummer of getting old is remembering what you wish you'd gotten done, or what you did, when you were younger; and this was only five years ago for me. Such is life. Herm optimized his end game to record his experiences and knowledge. Salute.

I consider MB a potential archive where hopefully Herm's legacy can be maintained, searched and footnoted by links of MB posts. His work is brilliant and complete. Perhaps his "documentation" will stimulate others to contribute their knowledge in similar historical fashion using the seed that might come into existence from Herm's contribution.

If proper permissions are obtained (if necessary) I will further organize and upload Herm's work to be properly appreciated.

For consideration,
Ron


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

Episode 6 of The RIver Radius Podcast features an interview with Herm and Valerie Hoops




__





LISTEN | River Radius Podcast







www.theriverradius.com


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## xileff (May 27, 2009)

GeoRon said:


> Bummer.
> 
> A project I never finish was to assimilate Herm's data and attempt a database detailing the chronology of raft companies and prices. His data was to interface with a database system I wrote for boat swaps. In time, it was to be a Herm Hoops Blue Book of boat history and boat prices.
> 
> ...


Jeez. Please publish and share that data somehow.


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## mtriverrat (Jan 29, 2012)

RIP Herm


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## nezbit (Nov 17, 2013)

GeoRon said:


> To the Management of Mountain Buzz (and Buzzer's),
> 
> Currently, the University of Utah Special Collections at the Marriott Library is the repository of Herm's legacy documenting the history of "rafts" and "rafting". My attempts to connect to that online archive fails.
> 
> ...


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## nezbit (Nov 17, 2013)

Hi GeoRon, I was fortunate to be on the receiving end of quite a bit of historical information from Hoops about a year ago. A good frind of mine and our river community here in Taos, Liz Hagerty, ran into him at an OR show and they began talking boats, and in there somewhere I came up as a person afflicted with severe inflatable boat geekdom, yada, yada, yada, and then I began receiving emails from him, and some via Liz, with loads of his own histoical works, articles, catalog pages, etc. I think about 35 emails in all, documenting a history of inflatables on rivers going back to about 800BCE. In the interest of compiling beta, perusing the list in your previous post I have all of those plus about a dozen other topics he covered. Maybe you have those as well and they're just not shown in that post. Anyway, I'd be happy to connect and share anything I have that might help in your project for the greater good.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

RIP Herm, I'll miss the opportunity to spend more time in your company...


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## GeoRon (Jun 24, 2015)

nezbit said:


> Hi GeoRon, I was fortunate to be on the receiving end of quite a bit of historical information from Hoops about a year ago. A good frind of mine and our river community here in Taos, Liz Hagerty, ran into him at an OR show and they began talking boats, and in there somewhere I came up as a person afflicted with severe inflatable boat geekdom, yada, yada, yada, and then I began receiving emails from him, and some via Liz, with loads of his own histoical works, articles, catalog pages, etc. I think about 35 emails in all, documenting a history of inflatables on rivers going back to about 800BCE. In the interest of compiling beta, perusing the list in your previous post I have all of those plus about a dozen other topics he covered. Maybe you have those as well and they're just not shown in that post. Anyway, I'd be happy to connect and share anything I have that might help in your project for the greater good.


Hello nezbit,

What I received in 2016 arrived as 19 emails with around 80 pdf attachments. You may have more to offer since Herm hopefully stayed active with his epic project after 2016. We should compare what we have.

Below is a copy of the last email's introduction(number 19). Before we can proceed I believe we must honor Herms request of copyright protections. We likely need to contact the J.Willard Library.

Perhaps, ideally, the best future repository of this body of historical information is Wikipedia. I think, to enter into Wikipedia(or similar archiving) the pdf's we received would need to be processed into suitable RTF or DOC files.

Should we continue this discussion/comparison on this thread or proceed via emails?

Ron


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## dunbarb (May 7, 2013)

GeoRon said:


> Hello nezbit,
> 
> What I received in 2016 arrived as 19 emails with around 80 pdf attachments. You may have more to offer since Herm hopefully stayed active with his epic project after 2016. We should compare what we have.
> 
> ...


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## dunbarb (May 7, 2013)

Wonderful movie tribute. Why is it called 'Salad Days'?


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

Salad days refers to the prime of our lives, youthful indiscretions, being enthusiastic, idealistic and at the peak of our abilities
Wonderful movie tribute. Why is it called 'Salad Days'?
[/QUOTE]


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