RIVERSIGNALS
much value for too little money, someone somewhere must be paying the price.” And from Beth Jones, “I am totally bummed.”
RS
URBAN OASIS: Whitewater parks can transform neglected areas and generate
lively new paddling communities. PHOTO: MATTHEW CORKE
the ev olution of whitewater parks O Play Time
Whitewater parks are high on many paddlers’ wish-it-were-in-my-backyard lists. Our cover- age of proposed playgrounds on Rapidmag. com caught the attention of paddlers from the prairies to the desert. “If this project goes for- ward, then Heaven truly is a place on earth… and that place has a name: Saskatoon,” wrote Toontown’s Marcelo Sales on Rapidmag. com. From the Duke City, Kelly wrote, “I think
SEE YOU ON THE RIVER
Watch for Rapid at loads of river festivals, races and paddling shows this year. On Feb- ruary 10, we kick the season off in Toronto with the world premiere of the Reel Pad- dling Film Festival 2011 World Tour (www.
reelpaddlingfilmfestival.com). If you can’t make it to T.O., check out the 99 other stops on the World Tour. We hit the road again in March, meeting
readers, shopping and hobnobbing with pros at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisconsin (Mar. 11-13,
www.canoecopia.com). Drop by to hear Editor-in-Chief Scott MacGregor present Good Dad, Bad Dad: The Benefits and Risks of Taking Kids Outdoors. Then we’re off to M.A.C.K.Fest in Marmora, Ontario (Apr. 9-10,
www.mackfest.ca). Half a dozen snowmelt-swollen, still-bergy-on- the-edges creeks, 4x4-mandatory shuttle roads and a history of misadventure (“I Hope I Never Learn,” Off the Tongue, Spring 2009,
www.rapidmag.com/0008)—what bet- ter way to spend a spring weekend? Two fun events put California on our wish
list this spring: Santa Cruz Paddle Fest rocks the coast March 18-20 (
www.asudoit. com/paddle_fest) and the Kern River Fes- tival nears its 50th anniversary in Kernville (Apr. TBA,
www.kernfestival.org). Actually, Cali is always on our paddling bucket list. For more spring travel ideas, check out
www.rapidmag.com.
BY CONOR MIHELL
nce upon a time, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, lived up to its namesake. The Grand River tumbled six vertical metres over a distance of two kilometres through the city’s centre on its way to Lake Michigan. Then came the construc- tion of North America’s first hydroelectric facili- ty in 1880, kicking off a century of urbanization. The river was straightened and channeled over a series of concrete weirs, and it was even pro- posed to be paved-over for a parking lot. “The Grand looks like a drainage ditch right now,” says local kayaker Chris Muller. “It’s a leftover from the industrial days when it was a place to gain power and get rid of sewage.”
Muller and his buddies Chip Richards and
Roger Starring are downing pints of Dirty Bas- tard Scotch-style ale at Grand Rapids’ Founders Brewery and Taphouse when I chat with them over a sketchy mobile phone conference call. For the past year the threesome’s Grand Rap- ids Whitewater (GRWW) organization has been spearheading a proposal to “put the rapids back in the Grand” in the form of a downtown white- water paddling course. The proposed take-out, coincidently or not, would be on the doorstep of their favourite downtown brewpub. While Richards and Muller have been dream- ing of a whitewater park in downtown Grand
www.rapidmag.com 31
future wave of the
BY BRIAN SHIELDS
fun. Even un-tattooed, decidedly un-Teutuliar open boaters can reap the benefits of home tuning. And it doesn’t have to cost a rapper’s squandered fortune. Take a lesson from the budget strokers and rice burners in the pages of Car Craft and
T
Import Tuner and do more with less. Replacing a couple $5 thigh strap anchors, or spending just five minutes adjusting said straps correctly, can make your old beater perform as well as the slickest new digger and have you hanging louies, roscoes and U-turns—er, S-turns—with the best. Turn the page for more performance- and appearance-enhancing suggestions from canoeing Modfather Brian Shields. —VM
www.rapidmag.com 27
here’s no reason to let auto buffs, washed up MTV hip hop artists and the Teutul dynasty have all the custom mods
whitewater parks provide an ideal opportunity for paddlers to get into the sport. I’ve been trying to get the City of Albuquerque to build a park here.” Conor Mihell’s recent report on play parks (“Wave of the Future,” Early Sum- mer 2010,
www.rapidmag.com/0006) inves- tigates the evolution of artificially enhanced whitewater arenas around the world.
SNAPSHOT
The images and video posted on
Rapidmag.com demonstrate that Rapid readers are as diverse as the rivers they paddle. (Top) Peter Thompson illustrates that challenge rewards concentration. Mikkel St. Jean-Duncan captures a perfect day on the Seven Canyons Run, Toby Creek, British Co- lumbia. And join Colin Kemp down the class IV North Yuba River, California. We love to see where you paddle. Share your adventures on the photo gallery and video pages at
www.rapidmag.com.
Makeover Madness
When it comes to customizing their rides, loy- al-for-a-lifetime open boaters typically trump sweet-for-a-season kayakers. In “Hot Rod OC Mods”
(Summer/Fall 2010, www.rapidmag.
com/0001), outfitting doyen Brian Shields listed over a dozen ways for single-bladers to freshen up Old Faithful. Brian Johnston added a few of his own favorites to Shields’ list: “Carve out a nook in the leading edge of your saddle for your Thermos and secure it with a bungee. Also, use a thwart paddle strap to keep your spare paddle secure and within reach. Lastly, no OC should be without solid grab loops for rescuing, carrying and ty- ing down.” Still, the craziest hot rod mod we know of belongs to a kayak—check out
the
blog, “Video: Jet Kayak” on www.rapidmag. com/0007. To which Randy Mitson respond- ed, “You should see the 1960s hydro jet-surf- board made by Alfred Bloomingdale,” proving there’s always room for improvement.
Frozen Asse(t)s
Rapid readers are a hardy bunch. Consider this letter all the way from England’s Jim Black, Trip Coordinator, “I want to book your services for six people to take whitewater kay- ak lessons in your facility for four weeks. We need an experienced instructor to train them. Let me know if you have availability for these dates, and an apartment to hire: Arrival date: February 7; departure date: March 7. Dates are flexible.” Hang on a minute. Four weeks of kay- aking lessons…in February…in Palmer Rap- ids? Oh, well, if the dates are flexible. Actually, Rapid doesn’t offer paddling lessons (or apart- ment rentals, incidentally) but we’d seriously consider taking your money…if the river wasn’t frozen. When we asked on Facebook what our more practical readers do in the winter, Krista Hughes admitted, “I have to accept” hanging up my paddle. And our favorite response, from Mike Morris, “I go quietly insane.”
8 RAPID SPRING 2011 FIND US:
editor@rapidmag.com,
www.rapidmag.com,
www.facebook.com/rapidmagazine,
www.twitter.com/rapidmag,
www.youtube.com/rapidmediatv
PHOTOS: MAIN, VIRGINIA MARSHALL / INSET, BRIAN SHIELDS
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