ON A FINE spring Saturday about a decade ago, Derek Carr asked his friend and Fresno State teammate Davante Adams if he wanted to go whitewater rafting. Adams shrugged. Sure, why not? Boating, he thought. Sounds fun. Adams' life experience to this point, it should be noted, had better prepared him for a trip to the moon than whitewater rafting. At least he'd seen the moon.
This adventure -- with a four-person crew of guide Ryan Soares, Adams, Carr, and Carr's girlfriend/now-wife, Heather -- took place on the notoriously turbulent Upper Kings River in the southern Sierra Nevada.