Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

HI fellow playboaters! You guys have to come check out the Wave in Wister Oklahoma. It is a wave that has formed approximately 1000 ft below the dam (legal length away from the dam to be boating). I can only compare it to Dierkes, the second hole, but this wave is bigger and wider and stronger! I would say approximately 20 yards wide with a perfect eddie! Ricky Rodriguez and myself surfed it this past weekend and we plan on being there again this weekend. We are trying to work with the Corps of Engineers to make this a regular spot for kayakers. This weekend, August 24th, my brother who is a reporter and owns the local paper, will be coming out to take pictures and do a story on this wave to help us get the support from the local fishermen and community. The Wister State Park is a nice park with cabins available to rent, and campsites that are within ten yards of the wave itself! This is a dream come true for us! WE COULD REALLY USE YOUR SUPPORT AND WOULD LOVE FOR ANYONE INTERESTED TO PLEASE COME UP! Please call me if you have any questions, my number is 918.413.3632 or you can reach Ricky at 479.652.3337 we have footage of the wave and us surfing and i will be trying to get that posted on here or you tube asap! Again, thank you and please come check it out! Thanks, Michelle Ashford, Oklahoma. still tring to upload the vidio from lastweek. IT'S GREAT>We have just talked to the army corp. folks and they are more than happy to help so they have given me the web sit to check the lake levels and stages so if you want to look at these it's on wwwswt.usace.army.mil tulsa dist.; and go to lake info. find lake wister. but a lot of the release is determind by the arkansas river that the poteau river dumps in to.but right know they have four gates opened at two feet each , and that seems to be the best big surfing . but at lower outputs seem to be just right for allaround skill levels. JUST MY thinking .(Ricky Rodriguez). and as for directions lake wister state park is only 16 miles from the arkansas oklahoma state line near mena. on US>270 between Heavener and Wister from Ft.Smith its about 50 min. taking 112 to poteau than 59 to 271 to wister from there , the signs take over. And from Mena or Acorn , follow 270 in to heavener in heavener at the only flashing lights go west on 270 and 6 miles you run in to the dam . There you can't help but see the river and then the WAVE right below the dam.

Was there last month but they weren't releasing any water to speak of. I must say, that lake is the nastiest water that I have seen. One in our group jumped in with a white t-shirt on. When he got out, it was stained brown!!! COE is working on the problem hoping that some new strains of vegetation will help. Experimental stages only right now.

Yes, the water is dirty comparable to rockport and most arkansas rivers. It is the color of stinky dierkes, but this wave is worth it!

Jim E wrote:Was there last month but they weren't releasing any water to speak of. I must say, that lake is the nastiest water that I have seen. One in our group jumped in with a white t-shirt on. When he got out, it was stained brown!!! COE is working on the problem hoping that some new strains of vegetation will help. Experimental stages only right now.

really good and interesting news for sure. Any scoop yet on good release levels and how to know when they are releasing. Being in Fort Smith this is just a hop, skip and a jump away. Closer than the old tulsa wave.

On water quality I duck hunt on wister and it would still be a vast improvement over the old tulsa wave in water quality.

Get some pics/video up so we can see the action.

We are trying to get video uploaded,however ricky and myself are not quite the computer wizards, so it may take some time. i have some footage on my phone and i can send that through a text message and give you an idea. We were really hoping to get in touch with the ft. smith people to let them know. we have been watching the levels for the past week. they range from 1890 cfc's down to 1640 cfc's and those levels are great! we have not seen it any lower since we surfed it. we will continue to watch it. we live ten minutes away and we will be surfing it at every level possible to ensure the quality of surfing! Thank you so much for responding and i hope to see you this weekend. it is supposed to be running at the same level!

panicman wrote:really good and interesting news for sure. Any scoop yet on good release levels and how to know when they are releasing. Being in Fort Smith this is just a hop, skip and a jump away. Closer than the old tulsa wave.

On water quality I duck hunt on wister and it would still be a vast improvement over the old tulsa wave in water quality.

Get some pics/video up so we can see the action.

That's some great news Michelle, thanks for sharing that! How far is this little gem from Little Rock? Anyone know? I cant wait to see the video either. If you post on youtube link us to it for sure.
Thanks again, good luck!

Joe

it is a good two hours from little rock. I do believe that james robinson is going to try to come up this weekend. he lives in little rock. if you have a cell with text i can send you a short video on your phone and you can see ricky surfiing it (he looks really little!) and it can kind of give you a good idea. Thank you so much for responding! we will keep you all posted!

JTarver wrote:That's some great news Michelle, thanks for sharing that! How far is this little gem from Little Rock? Anyone know? I cant wait to see the video either. If you post on youtube link us to it for sure.
Thanks again, good luck!

Joe

Michelle,

I'm always glad to here of new places to play/paddle in Oklahoma. Unfortunatly I will be working all weekend and not be able to make it out. But I wish you well on your attempts C.O.E. We have had problems in with trying to work with them in general. I think the more we try and show them that this is a good thing and not a bad thing the more sucsess we will have in other places.

Two places come to mind right away Oologah spillway and Outlaw creek below Broken Bow. These are two dam control runs that if we could get shceduled releases on would IMO bring boaters from several states to these areas.

Good luck, Terry DeMoe

Thank you so much for your response. I hope with everyone's support, we WILL make this thing happen!

L.A.paddler wrote:Michelle,

I'm always glad to here of new places to play/paddle in Oklahoma. Unfortunatly I will be working all weekend and not be able to make it out. But I wish you well on your attempts C.O.E. We have had problems in with trying to work with them in general. I think the more we try and show them that this is a good thing and not a bad thing the more sucsess we will have in other places.

Two places come to mind right away Oologah spillway and Outlaw creek below Broken Bow. These are two dam control runs that if we could get shceduled releases on would IMO bring boaters from several states to these areas.

Good luck, Terry DeMoe

would probably be more like 3 hours from the rock. It would take be about 45 min. or so to get to the dam I would would guess

Is there any web-based gauge for this lake/dam/river? I could add it to the OWPlist if there is...

- Fish

I check the USGS Real- Time. it is listed as: Leflore County (07247015) Poteau River near Panama OK. thank you SO MUCH! that would really help!

Fish wrote:Is there any web-based gauge for this lake/dam/river? I could add it to the OWPlist if there is...

- Fish

I think the number you listed for the gauge is wrong. Is this the right one: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ok/nwis/uv/?s ... 0065,00060

Thanks,
Fish

OK, I went ahead and added Wister Wave to the OWP stream levels page: http://www.ozarkpages.com/cgi-bin/stages.pl?ST=level" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I put optimal from 12.5 to 13.5 feet on the gauge based on the info in this thread. It's possible there are a lot more levels that are optimal, so please report other observations in feet on the gauge if you can and let me know what they correlate to: e.g. 8.5 ft is too low to paddle OR 10.5 feet is a little low for a good surf.

You can email me at fish AT ozarkpages DOT com with reports.

Thanks!
Fish

Alright, I can't get my phone to work, or dial out or recieve calls, or anything but is anyone planning on camping out there this weekend?