Colorado Tour '04

After a great trip to the Coosa Festival in Alabama I headed out west to hit up all the great river festivals in Colorado. On the way I happened to go through Metropolis, IN and see a giant Superman statue, I thought it was cool!

I first went to Golden, CO to check out their playpark. The level on Clear Creek was low, but Golden is a great little town with a beatiful playpark. I met a lot of great people in Golden that I got to hang out with throughout my Colorado travels. I had fun competing in the Golden Community Rodeo as well, and was beat baddly by the locals who knew how to shred their little spot. I was also lucky enough to have two awsome days playing at the Lawson playspot learning how to loop. The water was really cold, but it was good fun.

Yampa River Festival

The next stop was in Steamboat Springs, CO for the Yampa River Festival. Steamboat is a really magnificant CO mountain town with friendly people, great scenery, and an awsome playpark. After meeting up with Tracy Sage and Deb O'keefe for some fun and practice at the competiton spot the competion arrived on Saturday the 12th. The event was tons of fun and the playspot is somewhere were I will being trying to visit again soon. After the competition a few people demoed the Flirts and Jessica Rumsey was so impressed the she took a S Flirt home with her. Later that night a few of us met up at Chan's , the origianl Wavesport desingner, for some good conversation and some great paddling films. I'd like to personal thank Chan for the great hospitality.

Lyons River Festival

Sunday arrived early with a 3 plus hour drive to Lyons, CO. After a really fun team boatercross the rodeo competition began. The spot had very little water, but the pros made it look good. After the rodeo all the competitiors got a really nice free massage back at the festival site, something that my back really appreciated!

FIBARK Whitewater Festival

On the drive to Salida from Lyons I was able to check out Vail. The playspot was way to low to play, but the town was really cool. I also was able to paddle Dowed Chute on Eagle Creek, a fun little run with some catch on the fly play. I then got to paddle the Numbers of the Arkansas at about 900 cfs, a low level! It was fun, but very uneventful with the low water level.

For the few days before the festival I practiced in the bottom Salida playhole and at the Buena Vista playhole. Most of my time was spent in Salida talking shop and getting people into the Flirts. I was also able to paddle quite a bit and figure the spot out well enough to hit huge air loops.

In prelims their was 4 Flirts in the competition. Tracy Sage moved on to finals in her S Flirt with a 6th place finish in prelims. Deb O'keefe had tons of fun and threw really nice cleans, but didn't make the cut for finals. Evan from Golden paddled a demo M Flirt to 12th place in the Mens Expert class after only paddling the boat for less than 30 minutes. I was able to get 2nd out of 28 Mens Expert competitiors to move on to finals.

Saturday was a busy day with Flirt demos and practice for finals. I refined my air loops and worked on space godzillas. Tracy Sage was also hitting huge airloops and working on felixes. Some friends from Golden had there car catch fire from the engine overheating. Four playboats and four peoples paddling gear were lost in this fire, with two boats completely melting and a full carbon paddle being reduced to carbon strings!!!

Everyone stepped it up for finals on Sunday. I hit my planned rides, minus a perfect space godzilla. I also found out that my air loops were big enough to get the full 6pt huge move bonus. I ended up dropping to 7th overall. Tracy Sage was able to put togther some huge loops as well as a felix to land a 3rd place in Womens Pro. I look forward to seeing what Tracy can do when she gets her new S Flirt completly figured out!

Overall this roadtrip was a huge sucess. Lots of people now know who and what Fluid Kayaks are all about. I was also able to meet lots of new paddling friends and paddle some really great playspots. After over 5,000 miles of solo driving in just under 3 weeks in the Go Big Rig I'm glad to be back home in Baltimore.

See you on the river, Bryon Dorr