This is a true story that in almost every single chapter relates a very important lesson in our age of uncertainty... how the FINE ART OF STAYING FLEXIBLE can be the key to surviving our day to day existence and keep our sanity intact. This narrative starts with how Gary Harper's Grandfather Buck survived being run over by a train and severely injured and how he survived to become the ultimate "Man of Rubber".

Gary's narrative also tells the true story of how he and several others pioneered whitewater rafting on the Middle Ocoee River in southeast Tennessee. He was a founding partner in Ocoee Outdoors which was the first outfitter to open a shop near the river in the summer of 1977. This book also describes in detail how he named over half the rapids on the Middle Ocoee River that same year.

It continues with Gary finding his true love Beth in the spring of 1978.

In 1980 the two of them sold their 25% interest in OO and the following year they both began working as Guides, Trip Leaders & Managers for the first company to take paying guests down the Ocoee, Sunburst Adventures.

In 1983 Gary started Man of Rubber on the side as an Inflatable Repair Service. Since then they have grown it to be a very successful husband and wife business team selling whitewater equipment at RiverGear. com.

Their story also tells of EPIC whitewater adventures on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. This was during the 1983 the Big Water Year at over 60,000 cubic feet of water per second (almost 4 million pounds of water per second) flowing down the Colorado River through the bottom of Grand Canyon.

How they survived the whirlpools, surging eddies, house size waves and holes is a miracle in and of itself.

Gary has come up with a formula for life which he has named after his Grandfather Buck...

Buck's Formula for Life is F+H+3P = BOMO

Which translates to - Stay Flexible + Hang In There + Patience + Persistence + Perseverance = Better Outcomes More Often !!!