This years FIBark event in Salida, CO was a blast as usual. Fluid came out with a strong contingent this year. Seth Chapelle, Leif Anderson, Jeremy Adkins, Deb O'Keefe, Tracy Sage and myself all represented Fluid this year at FIBark. Fluid had a booth and demos this year on the boat ramp and received quite a nice response from the Colorado crowd. A small Flirt was also in the silent auction to benefit the Arkansas river and sold for a very respectable price. The freestyle event was tons of fun with an awesome renovated feature at the Salida boat ramp. This year also saw the inaugural Pine Creek race on the Upper Arkansas.
Team Fluid made up a majority of the "bubble people" at this years freestyle event. Leif Anderson, Tracy Sage, and myself were all only a few points out of making the cut to semi-finals. Deb O'Keefe and Jeremy Adkins put on a good show for the crowd as usual. Seth Chapelle was the big freestyle star this year competing in Mens K-1 Pro, at only 16 and in a C-1!!! Seth managed a 4th place in the first round and ended up in 8th place overall. Seth managed to upset a large number of big name pros and if the water level hadn't come up for finals he might have upset a few more.
(Seth mid Air Loop at the upper Salida hole)
Leif Anderson showed up to the Pine Creek race with a brand new shiny green Large Solo. Leif had never paddled the course before, or the boat for that matter. He ended up coming in 6th overall, just getting edged out of finals by Dunbar Hardy. A good friend of mine Andy Maser didn't have a boat to race in and ended up borrowing Leif's Large Solo for the time trials. With no practice on the course, or in the boat, Andy managed to get second place in the time trials, just behind Clay Wright. The Large Solo at only 8ft is an extremely fast boat and competes well in the 8ft6inch and under race class.
FIBark once again exceeded my expectations and is still one of my favorite river festivals to attend each year. I hope to see you all at next years festival.
See you on the river- Bryon Dorr
