Pipers Hole Festival News

I think I have the final touches on the Pipers Hole Festival. Here are all of the pertinent details.

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2007
Time: 10:00 am in the parking lot. The rodeo will likely start around 12:30 pm.
Location: Pipers Hole River is located just south of Swift Current, NL. Follow the TCH west from St. John's. Just past the Iriving station in Goobies there is a left hand turn onto highway #210, there are signs for the Burin Peninnsula and Marystown. Swift Current is located 21 km west of Goobies. THe entrance to the park is a further 4.5 km west of the edge of town. If you miss the park entrance you will pass over a bridge and start heading up a large hill. This is too far, turn around and look for the park on the east side of the bridge.
Cost: No Cost, just come and have fun. At past festivals there have been t-shirts for the participants, but not this year. As a departure from the clothing market there will be NL Rodeo Series Decals available for $4 or $5 each, I'm still sorting that out.
Format: The festival is really just about getting out with a large group of paddlers and enjoying an amazing little play run. It is a good opportunity for beginner boaters to paddle with more experienced whitewater kayakers. This is also a day to invite your friends who may be passingly interested in taking up the sport, but don't know much about kayaking.

The main event of the day is the rodeo. This year the format will be based on elimination heats. Heats of four kayakers will have exclusive access to the wave for 10 minutes. The top two paddlers, as decided by the spectators, will advance to the next round. I estimate that there will be four rounds. Although if it is really cold the third round may be used as the championship round and the four paddlers in the heat will be ranked after their session.

Safety Note: In the event of a swim during the competition all paddlers in the heat are expected to participate in the rescue. The clock will be held until the rescue is completed and the paddlers are ready to continue. Any paddler that fails to leave the eddy and help the swimmer will be disqualified.

Apres Paddle Pizza: A supper will be available at the end of the day, around 5:30 pm. It will be a pizza party held at Kilmory Lodge (cabin TBA). The charge is $7 at the door and will hopefully be all you can eat. This is open to anyone and everyone, including spectators and any sea kayakers in the area, that want to join us for some hot food and warm-up at the end of the day. In order to make sure we have enough pizza to feed everyone it would be nice if you could email me by Thursday and let me know if you plan on attending. The supper is BYOB, but soft drinks will be available.

Pipers Hole River Festival 2007

Alright,

After a hiatus the Pipers Hole River Festival will be back in 2007. On Saturday, April 14, 2007 to be specific. So, mark this off on your calendar and come out to play on the waves with a group of paddling enthusiasts. Following the day of paddling an apres paddle party will be held Saturday evening. The details for the party are still coming together, but I'll be able to announce them as soon as it is finalized.

The general format of the rodeo will be a jam session on one of the waves and in the hole. Hopefully we'll also get a down river race of some kind organized. This year the rodeo itself will be free for all participants. Festival t-shirts will be for sale to all participants and any spectators that would like to join us. As in the past the kind folks at The Outfitters are supporting the festival and we'll have a few fun things for the top jammers. I'd like to thank The Outfitters for their continuing support of the Pipers Hole River Festival.

Unlike previous editions of the festival there will be a semi-official second day of river celebrations. There are several top notch creeks in the vicinity of Pipers Hole River. On Sunday I will be organizing a group to tackle one of these creeks. The particular creek chosen will be dependent on water levels. As forewarning, both creeks that I have in mind are full-on Class IV+\V; paddlers joining these trips will require advanced whitewater skills and creek boats. I will also try to arrange for an intermediate\beginner level trip on Pipers Hole River too. However, if anyone would like to watch the creeking you're welcome to venture out with us. March Brook and Granite Brook are both beautiful places to hike and have a picnic.

That is pretty much as far as I have gotten with the organization of the rodeo. There will be more to come in the near future. Check back later this week and I'll have the final the bits of organization ready to be announced. Also, I don't know much about the sea kayaking in the area, but our ocean bound brethren are welcome to join us for the weekend.