KAYAKSCHOOL OTTAWA
OTTAWA RIVER CANADA
Full Service Riverside Resort New Kayaker Camp in 2003 Kayak Rentals
Mountain Biking • Climbing Wall 2 AND 5 DAY Advanced Playboating New
Teen Kayak Camps
Building a river channel is a complex task, starting with a wish list of features….
PROGRAMS Beginner to
StandingWaves Dam News
Building a Whitewater Dream—1/15 Scale writer Stuart Smith
Mucking about in rubber boots diverting
water, creating drops, and sending sticks down a miniature river channel is every kid’s dream rainy day activity. For a group of paddlers from Vancouver it is a big-kid reality—one that will shape the final design for the Cloudworks Whitewater Centre located on Rutherford Creek, near Whistler, B.C.
Unlike the rainy day waterways you had as a kid, this one comes with a big price. Because of a microhydro project, local paddlers are losing the paddling on Rutherford Creek. However, the settlement agreement negotiated by the Whitewater Kayaking Association of B.C. (WKABC) calls for a 560-metre-long course with 14 metres of vertical drop and a number of play features to replace the lost whitewater.
At just over 20 metres in length and 1.5 metres in width, the scale model allows paddlers to test over 300 metres of the real course. The staff at the modelling facility has helpful expertise in scaling down complex moving-water factors like current velocity, volume and distance. Flows in the model run continuously, so pad- dlers can work in the channel placing and rear- ranging objects to create the desired features. Of special significance are the three removable inserts that can be taken away for shaping or exchanged for other feature inserts. The features include: a competition wave and hole, a couple of challenging rapids, an easy surf wave and play hole, a combination wave/hole, eddies, and boof moves as well as other regular river features.
The best place to learn to paddle!
Adam Sealey from the Squamish Whitewater Paddlers runs a test boat through the competition hole on the scale model of the Cloudworks Whitewater Centre.
THE RIVER SHOP KAYAKS & ACCESSORIES
Ottawa River Website Levels, Aerial Photos & More
www.ottawakayak.com 1-800-267-9166
16
www.rapidmag.com
Fifteenth-scale modeling of the artificial course is now underway in North Vancouver. It’s a cooperative effort between the general con- tractor, Peter Keiwitt, the project developers, Cloudworks Energy, and the WKABC. Building a river channel is a complex task, no matter what the scale. Local paddlers first had to come up with the overall design and a wish list of features. In early December, the con- ceptualization moved into reality as the group gathered to watch water flow through the scale obstacles they placed in the model channel. The model has variable flow input, so pad- dlers can easily test the rapids and features at the different flows, which in the real course will range from five to 17 cubic metres per second.
The course will end in a two- to three-metre
vertical drop. This small-scale waterfall is a fish barrier to prevent endangered species from entering the artificial channel. The drop provides some real challenges for the designers who need to ensure a safe recovery pool. This fea- ture will no doubt be a hit with all the aspiring creek paddlers, who can practice skills in a con- trolled environment.
Also included in the facility are a teaching pond, classroom and road access with parking on one side and a path along the opposite side. The course design will be finalized this spring and construction begins this summer. The Cloudworks Whitewater Centre will open June of 2004.
riverman@shaw.ca.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52