Dust Bowlers - great workout potential

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RandyJ
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Posts: 475
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:49 pm
Name: Randy Jackson
Location: Tulsa

Dust Bowlers - great workout potential

Post by RandyJ » Wed May 13, 2009 10:55 pm

Hey all you folks in the Tulsa area, though the old Tulsa Wave is gone now, there's still some great boating to be had in the Wave area on the east side of the river, at least at current flows (10-15,000 cfs). There are surfing waves, attainments, lots of peel-outs, ferries, eddy turns, and even a little boof move I was working on a bit tonight. Some of the eddys are junky, so might be a good idea to bring your old beater paddle, but all the moves are there.

Nice pushy class II - great way to spend a couple of hours after work. Features change quite a bit based on small swings in volume. Don't know that I'd drive from out of town for it, but if you're desperate, it might fit the bill. The lake is 19' up into the flood pool and rising. The whole system over here is pretty full, and I expect once the rest of the system drains out some, the Corps will amp up the release volume out of Keystone. Even so, we may have water well into July now.

Again, not the greatest, most aesthetic boating environment, but if you gotta go, you gotta go, and the potential to really build or polish your skills is there if you apply yourself. I'll probably hit it up once a week or so as long as it's running. Boatball will have to wait. Holler if you want to hook up.

As for getting the Tulsa Wave back and/or getting a wave park built: it's not dead, it just smells funny. Right now, it's all about funding, and it's complicated. BUT, there's enough money in the kitty to start design work, hopefully sometime this summer. What's in scope is the design of two new low-water dams (one in Sand Springs, and one in Jenks), plus a make-over of the Zink Dam just upstream of the Tulsa Wave. I have it on good authority that whitewater features will be designed into all three of the locations. The Tulsa Wave site still holds the most potential for whitewater by far, IMO. Also, there's a possibility that the Zink Dam make-over part of the project can get started first. So it's still 2-3 years out, but hey, at least it's a plan.

On a smaller scale, I'm working on getting some large boulders dropped into the river in the area where I was working out tonight, to try and add some bigger, more well-defined features. This is looking very good right now. The biggest obstacle may be waiting for the water to drop out in order to do the work.

Finally, Oologah Lake is high and climbing. Checking in every day or two to see if they open the spillway. And guess what the weather is doing right now??? :crazy:
Let there be rain!

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