Creek Racing

[RomanLA]

There's a good article in Canoe & Kayak Whitewater about creek racing replacing freestyle kayaking for competitions. I doubt it would be feasible to put together a class IV/V type race in Arkansas, but it may be worth looking into...if nothing else maybe the Jungle Boat Race could be made into a larger festival type event with some national attention.

US Whitewater Racing Association
http://uswwra.com

[knu2xs]

With truly good creeks runs being elusive to catch at best and most everything reliable being not of the caliber to contest a Grand Sprint Slalom on Cossatot Falls. Most paddlers are at least fundamentally familiar with slalom. A Grand Sprint Slalom is similar, except contested on a much more difficult section of water with single poles to constrain the paddler's line, many times adding a degree of difficulty to the normal moves.

Like traditional slalom, there are both upstreams and downstreams which must be negotiated in sequence and penalties are assessed for missing or touching a pole. Unlike traditional slalom, boats are limited to pretty much anything floating. There are no rules for length, width or weight. Paddle what you got.

Although many of us have frequently discussed this idea, it first started catching on when a race was contested like this, I think on the White Salmon a couple of years ago. The posted video was really fun to watch. Class V with people ducking poles while boofing off ten foot pourovers over huge holes was pretty cool to watch.

This format though, would be perfect for what is available at Cossatot Falls. The water may not be difficult enough to justify an extreme race. However, up the difficulty ante with some poles and it really could be a fun and very challenging event.