For most families, summer vacation means a camping trip to the mountains or perhaps a week in Florida at the beach or a few days at Disney World.
For the Popp family of Hixson, their family vacation this summer will include world-class whitewater competition in Europe.
Starr and Tom Popp will be taking their four children to Spain and three of their children will be competing against the world’s best at the 2010 Wildwater World Championships in Sort, Spain.
Wildwater is a discipline of canoeing and kayaking in which competitors race down whitewater rivers as quickly as possible, without going through gates as in Olympic-style slalom kayaking.
Haley, Bryson and Colton Popp all made the U.S. team in qualifying on the Nantahala River in North Carolina earlier this year, and they will represent the United States against racers from all over the world on the La Noguera Pallaresa river in northwestern Spain.