Before he graduated with a business administration degree and spent four years hitchhiking around the world, Paul Fogal \u201969 spent his childhood answering phones and booking reservations at two Ocean Grove, New Jersey, hotels his parents owned.<\/p>\n
So, when Fogal landed a job as a river guide at the Youghiogheny River in Western Pennsylvania in the mid-1970s, it didn\u2019t take long for his boss to put him to work three days a week booking reservations. That\u2019s when Fogal realized he\u2019d found his niche.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of figuring out what I wanted to do with my life,\u201d says Fogal. \u201cIt slowly started to dawn on me that I could do this\u2014and I could do it better than him.\u201d<\/p>\n
After two seasons at Youghiogheny River, Fogal and his brother, Doug, opened their own business. That was 1976. Today their company, Pocono Whitewater, located in the Lehigh Valley, has taken over 1 million people down the Lehigh River.<\/p>\n
For Fogal, a lifelong water sports enthusiast who has paddled on all seven continents, it\u2019s the perfect job. \u201cPeople come here to have a nice time, and [I] get to go and have a nice time with them,\u201d says Fogal, who despite owning the business still works as a guide on occasion. We asked him what people need to know before heading down the rapids.<\/p>\n