Arkansas River Race Cancelled

[potterspoint434]

I'm sorry to announce that the Arkansas River Race will not be held. This race has been supported by the ACC for the past 12 years.i want to thank everyone that supported the race through the years.

I tried to get the race moved to Little Maumelle but was told they I could not reserve the park for a half of a day to have the race.

The past 4 years Coach Shaun Caven from Oklahoma City has been bringing some of the top paddlers in the US to the Little Rock Race. He had promise to double the amount of paddlers this year.

There has not been much local support for the event. After putting it on for about 7 years I decide after being turned down to use the park, that the race needed more help putting it on and promoting it.

I ride in bike events where they have streets closed and police everywhere but they could let us use Little Maumelle for a half a day .

I do about 8-10 races a year in other states and have seen the numbers grow, Memphis has a race that has been going on for over 30 years and draws over 400 paddlers each year. Little Rock could have the same size race but we need support from the cities.

Again I would like to thank the people that have supported the race all these years thnk you whether you helped sponsor or paddled in the race.
Maybe next year??
Phil Capel
Race Directer

[we66erno1]

It's sad that the one paddling event in Arkansas that has drawn the most television coverage and print media coverage in the past three years, has been canceled. Hopefully it's just this year and will come back very soon.

Even though it wasn't a whitewater event, it still drew coverage from four of the top major media outlets in Arkamsas to cover it. I saw coverage of it last year in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, on TV from THV, KARK, and KATV. This kind of coverage could continue to help open up money from the state for water trails and access points.

Wish this event could be saved somehow. Maybe you should consider using an alternative starting point for the race. There is a private put-in on the little Maumelle. And maybe that guy would be more interested then the State Parks system. Especially if it gets more people using his access point for the creek. I'm pretty sure he has plenty of parking also.

[potterspoint434]

Thanks for the kind words , but this has been on the board for a week now with only one reply, that tells me that there
isn`t much interest for the sport