Here Comes the Water…

The Arkansas hit its highest flow of the season today, peaking at 1,070 cfs. The Up-town Hole was giving up tail-clearing loops. Yeehaw!

Good Times on New Features

It’s starting to warm up here in BV, and the water is slowly starting to rise. The Ark has made it into the 800 cfs range on two days now, and a real warm spell could start bigger runoff any day. We locals have been enjoying the water though, and it turns out that we have several features to work with that are a good time at these levels. I just got off the river at 700 cfs and thought I’d give a synopsis.

The uptown hole is steep and cranking, offering up loops, McNasties, blunts, backstabs, tumblewheels… most anything is possible there and it’s been really nice to have access from river left again after the improvements this spring.

The midtown hole is a local favorite these days. It’s more powerful after the changes, with a dynamic curler feeding in on surfer’s right. That makes for good blunts and backstabs, loops, McNasties, cleans, etc. I usually hit on my loops but not on my wheels.

The downtown hole is quite fun, and I’m really hopeful that this one will be excellent with higher flows. It’s got a lot of wave character and is very deep right now. It’s a bit slower-paced but seems to be speeding up with each rise in water level. At 700 I was able to cartwheel, clean and tricky woo in the small pourover feeding into the hole from river right.

So we’re already having fun on the BV whitewater park, and we should be in great shape for the BV Pro Rodeo. Can’t wait to see everyone there!

Flows and Snowpack

If you’re interested in watching the snow make its way from the mountains to the Arkansas River, check out the CKS Flows page as well as the latest snowpack figures. As you can see, the Arkansas Valley has the highest snowpack in the state. Yeehaw!

Buena Vista Whitewater Park New and Improved!

Many thanks to all who helped make this spring’s whitewater park improvements possible! For a comprehensive rundown of the features and improvements, check out this great post at the CKS blog. It’s hard to say how it will all look as the water comes up, but things are definitely looking promising, with several features really fun already. Loops, clean cartwheels and more are a go in the Midtown and Downtown holes between 600 and 700 cfs. We should have plenty to work with come event time!

The first annual Buena Vista Pro Rodeo will be held on May 24, 2008 on the new and improved Buena Vista River Park in Buena Vista, Colorado. A Pro Freestyle Competition will be followed by an evening party and awards ceremony. The event will divide a $2000 cash purse between winners in Men’s and Women’s divisions, and preliminaries and finals will both take place on Saturday May 24.

The Buena Vista Pro Rodeo will culminate the Buena Vista River Festival, a series of paddling events lasting from May 16 to May 24. The CKS Paddle Fest is “The Kickoff” to the 2008 paddling season and will take place from May 16-18, 2008. The world famous Pimp and Ho Rodeo and Party will take place on Wednesday May 21st. And the Buena Vista Pro Rodeo will conclude the action and be the first pro freestyle competition to take place at the Buena Vista River Park.

Buena Vista is a national paddling destination thanks to the abundance of playboating, creeking and river running in the Arkansas Valley Headwaters region. The Buena Vista River Park has become a major playboating destination. It now has four features complete with annual maintenance continually improving their quality. With snowpack in the Arkansas River drainage currently at 159%, the Buena Vista Pro Rodeo promises to be a freestyle event of the highest quality, continuing the momentum of the high profile CKS Paddle Fest and the world famous Pimp and Ho Rodeo and party.