S T A N D I N G W A V E S


RIVER PALOOZA WWF ALSO MEANS WHITE WATER FESTIVAL


The Ottawa River is no stranger to white- water festivals. On Canada’s busiest river there’s an event every long weekend. For the August long weekend, River Palooza organizers Flex Cottrill and Joey Hitchins knew they had to rattle the cage and cre- ate something totally different. “The concept was to have a three-


day river festival that included music, vendors and multiple sporting events,” recalled Hitchins. “In the future I see 10,000 people cheering on pro athletes in their respective sports including ex- treme whitewater kayaking, skydiving and kiteboarding.” This was the second year for River


Palooza and a step toward Hitchins’ long-term vision. Saturday night, on a Woodstock-sized stage, there were five DJs and seven bands including the funk and groove of headliners Cosmic Juice and the ’80s-style breakdance of the Ca- nadian Floor Masters. Where’s the river festival part, you ask?


To dodge criticism of hogging the Otta- wa’s best feature on the summer’s busiest weekend, River Palooza organizers flood- ed the Garberator with halogen lights and


B O O K R E V I E W


Les Rivières Sportives du Québec BY ÉRIC LECLERC


We can only hope that Hy- dro-Québec doesn’t catch wind of Les Rivières Sport- ives du Québec. If they do, they’ll have in their hands the definitive compilation of whitewater in la belle province—a paddler’s guide to a lifetime of new runs and a profit-driven corporation’s megawatt to-do list. Leclerc describes more than 140 routes on nearly 100 different rivers from the Outaouais to Lac St. Jean to the south shore. Leclerc’s hefty 265-page tome goes


beyond the usual wordy route descrip- tions and tiresome anecdote approach and instead provides convenient quick- reference tables that describe the length


20


and difficulty of runs and gives clues as to the best times to run them. A separate chapter outlines what different flow rates mean for each river; another section high- lights 19 rodeo and slalom hotspots. Too good to be


true? For some, yes. It’s only available in French. An English version may be forthcoming, but in the meantime, those within reach of Québec who understand what it means to “pagayer en eaux vives” should get their hands on this book be- fore Hydro-Québec does.


www.expeditionpleinair.com


pumped hip hop to drown out the hum of generators tucked in the woods. Twenty-five invited pro athletes com-


peted using a unique scoring system: 30-minute heats, five athletes per heat, maximum one-minute rides and winner takes all. “The beauty of our format,” said Hitchins, “is that it allows the best to be the best and only the best will be reward- ed at our show.” The best man under the lights this year was Steve Fisher. Back at the festival the main event


was women’s mud wrestling. Superwom- an, Catwoman, Hulkess and Tank Girl (and one drunken fan followed by a se- curity guy who could have been Macho Man Randy Savage) battled it out for the belt in a Turtle Pool mud pit. This was no hair-pulling catfight; we’re talking cho- reographed WWF-style body slams and pile drivers. The crowd loved it. I asked Hitchins if this is the future of whitewater festivals. “We brought the mud wresting back


simply because it was the biggest attrac- tion. We didn’t plan it that way, but who were we kidding, this is the Valley.”—S.M.


E V E N T S sponsored by


Feb 4 REEL PADDLING FILM FESTIVAL AND WORLD TOUR LAUNCH Ottawa, ON www.rapidmedia.com www.trailhead.ca


Feb 17–19 ADVIL OUTDOOR ADVENTURE SHOW Vancouver, BC www.outdooradventureshow.ca


Feb 24–26 ADVIL OUTDOOR ADVENTURE SHOW Toronto, ON www.outdooradventureshow.ca


March 10–12 CANOECOPIA Madison, WI www.rutabaga.com/canoecopia


March 24–26 ADVIL OUTDOOR ADVENTURE SHOW Calgary, AB www.outdooradventureshow.ca


March 25–26 RICH WEISS CUP Chilliwack, BC www.kayakrdc.org


April 1–2 CREDIT DOWNRIVER/ SLALOM


Mississauga, ON


lreiche@hostmann-steinberg.net jedi_jeff@hotmail.com


April 8 HUMBER DOWNRIVER Toronto, ON


—C.M. $35 Cdn hvw@templemannenninga.com


FOR A COMPLETE EVENTS LISTING GO TO www.rapidmag.com


RAPID


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