Eric Thomas spent the 1980s and ’90s surfing waves off Florida, California and Hawaii, with other stops around the Bahamas and tropics in what became a professional career on the oceans.

Then he looked to a land-locked state.

“I wanted something totally different,” Thomas said.

He was done with waiting for waves that would sometimes form and sometimes not after hours of longing. He was done with the “localism,” as he called it — tribes that would claim waves when they did form, sometimes enforcing by fists. “West Coast cool” could often feel anything but.

In his search, Thomas found himself in rivers carving Colorado’s mountains. He found himself carving as well, his board cutting across whitewater that was more frequented by kayakers and rafters than people like him standing upright w

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