Explore Steamboat, Yampa Festival wraps up

Yampa Festival wraps up

Monday, June 11, 2007

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steamboat Springs residents 13-year-old Luke Farny, left, and his brother, 12-year-old Andrew Farny, navigate the slalom course on the Yampa River during Sunday races. The race was one of several events during the Yampa River Festival, which ended Sunday.

Steamboat Springs — The weekend celebration of snowmelt continued Sunday with kayaking races through racing gates on the Yampa River along Dr. Rich Weiss Park.

The slalom races concluded the 27th annual Yampa River Festival, which is organized annually by Friends of the Yampa. The group consists of boaters, anglers and others who work to protect one of Steamboat Springs’ most prized resources.

“This is always a fun event,” said Friends of the Yampa member Bill Peck.

Peck was standing on shore under the warm sun keeping an eye on the boats as they navigated the final gates of the course. For each gate a boater hit, two seconds were added to their time. Miss a gate completely and it is a 50-second penalty.

“This is more of a traditional element in kayaking,” said event volunteer Kent Morrison.

Throughout the years, Morrison said the slalom event, in some ways, had taken a back seat to the kayaking rodeo. The rodeo is a spectator-friendly event in which kayakers pull off tricks such as the McNasty, phonyx monky or the space Godzilla.

The competition is popular with younger boaters and those breaking into the sport, but Morrison said there has been a recent change in attitude with younger boaters when it comes to the slalom.

“They recognize that while they’re both different skill sets, they’re both very valuable skill sets,” Morrison said.

Friends of the Yampa members also realize the importance of the slalom event to the kayaking sport, and recently there has been a push to fix up the slalom course on the river.

About 30 people participated in Sunday’s races, including a few fathers and sons looking for some friendly competition.

“I just like to see all these families that boat,” Morrison said.

The Brown family drove up from Durango to participate in the Festival events.

Brent Brown’s two sons, Cully, 11 and Rogan, 15, are U.S.A. Canoe/Kayak slalom junior national and development team members, respectively.

Rogan took first in the junior fiberglass boat class, while Cully took second. Brent Brown came in third in the adult fiberglass boat class.

Steamboat Springs residents 13-year-old Luke Farny, and his brother, 12-year-old Andrew Farny, took a few runs together in their two-person enclosed canoe.

“We’re doing brother teams this race,” Luke said.

The skills of the young boaters caught the attention of many of the spectators. There also was a decent amount of heckling from the crowd as some of Steamboat’s “old-timers” took to the water.

“I’ve done this race every single year,” said Barry Smith, who owns Mountain Sports Kayak School in Steamboat. “I’ve even won some, but the competition looks pretty stiff this year.”

Smith ended up taking first place in the senior plastic boat class.

This was Tom Whiddon’s first year participating in the slalom race. Whiddon, 55, is community service supervisor for the city of Steamboat Springs and also participated in the festival rodeo event Saturday.

Whiddon was competing in the same class as his 19-year-old son, Clay Whiddon.

“I was breathing pretty hard by the end of the deal,” said Tom Whiddon, after finishing his first run.

Masatashi Yamakawa, a 36-year-old University of Colorado engineering student from Tokyo, also came up to Steamboat for the races.

“It’s my first time,” Yamakawa said. “I tried to do my best and maybe get first.”

He came out on top of the field of five boaters in his fiberglass boat adult division.