Those who attended the Wenatchee River Festival were treated to record flows! Unfortunately they were record low flows with snowpack in the Cascades nearly gone at least a month before usual, but everyone enjoyed a great party to celebrate whitewater resources of the Wenatchee River Valley and the ongoing work of AW in the Pacific Northwest.
With the low water Tumwater Canyon, normally a late-season run, was at a prime range of moderate flows. Play spots on the main Wenatchee run were less prevelant, but paddlers still found some good features and Granny’s was the site of the freestyle event. Local instructors Chris Totten from Fluid Adventures and Andree Hurley from OnWaterSports led clinics in the morning and Jock Bradley, photographer for Torrent, led a shoot with the pros photography workshop. The afternoon featured the WaveSport downriver race and the TEVA freestyle competition. Tube Leavenworth provided free shuttles all day.
Vendor booths at the city park in Cashmere
Class Five sponsors included Aquasports Paddle Center, Blue Sky Outfitters, Cascadia Paragliding, Kalinga Adventures, Leavenworth Mountain Sports, Northwest Outdoor Center, Outdoor Adventure Center, Seattle Raft and Kayak all of whom kicked in a generous assortment of gear and services in conjunction with over 60 sponsors who made this event happen. Following the barbeque dinner and tapping of the kegs (generously provided by Pyramid Ale), the raffle and auction began at the Riverside Center. Jock Bradley then presented a slideshow of images from his new book Torrent and Eric Link from Twitch School presented the latest film in the Twitch series. The evening closed out with some great turnes from 20 Fonte.
Sam Drevo turning in a winning performance for Team Drevo in the TEVA freestyle competition.
Through this event, AW signed up 45 members and the local affiliate Washington Kayak Club helped raise more than $7500 in support of AW’s river conservation, access, and safety work in the region.
Next year’s event is scheduled for the weekend of June 10th, 2006 and we’ll all hope for a big snow year.
Photos provided by Carlos Cavazos and Sybille Fleischmann.