Kelly's Whitewater Park

This last weekend Kelly's Whitewater Park in Cascade was the venue for the USA Freestyle Kayak National Point Series Championship.  Okay, I didn't know anything about freestyle kayak competitions either.  But it was a lot of fun to watch on a beautiful summer day. 

These kayaks are so short they seem almost like a pontoon molded around the kayaker's legs, which enables them to do tricks like spins and flipping upside down.  The yellow kayak in the foreground of this picture is called "open canoe style".  Also, in this picture there's actually a surfer out there demonstrating for the crowd on the main wave feature which is called "Big Nasty".

Here's a better picture of the surfer, taken by Mike Leeds, whose photos appear on http://www.kellyswhitewaterpark.com/about.html

Actually Mike had a lot of better pictures than I got with my phone.  Here's a photo of some of the competitors practicing the day before the competition.

 

And a kayaker rolling over.

 

Here's another one of Mike's photos that shows the calmer channel through the whitewater park, the rock island in the center of the river, and the visitor center.  Cascade is so blessed to have this whitewater park that opened 1 year ago.  Our county and town are very economically depressed and this park has put us on the tourist map again.  Many thanks to our mayor who had a great idea, Hans Barbonus who donated the land on the riverfront, and Mark and Kristina Pickard of Miami Beach, FL, who financed the building of the park grounds and the 5 wave features in the river.

 The park also hosts outdoor events like concerts and art shows.  You can learn more here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V67zbh_aT0

And, finally, here's my photo of Steve just to prove we were really there!