The USNWC is a non-profit outdoor recreation center on 400 acres adjacent to the Catawba River. The whitewater center is an athletic training facility for whitewater rafting and whitewater slalom racing, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking. The primary feature of the USNWC is the world's largest and most-complex recirculating artificial whitewater river, which was designed by Scott Shipley, a three-time Olympian.