A giant step was taken today for whitewater kayakers across the country. American Whitewater and Octagon Marketing, owner of the Subaru Gorge Games, jointly announced today the creation of the Gorge Whitewater Series. The Series is the extension of last year’s highly successful Outdoorplay Freestyle Championships and will be comprised of four professional whitewater kayaking events held around the country. The Series will culminate in the championship crowning event at the 2001 Subaru Gorge Games in Hood River, Oregon, in July. The total cash purse for the Series is $32,500 made up of a $5,000 purse available at each of the earlier events, $10,000 available at the Gorge Games and $7,500 available for the overall champions. Purses will be divided between pro men and women competitors.
Each event in the Series will offer competitors and spectators alike a variety of kayaking disciplines, including extreme racing, down river racing, down river freestyle and hole riding freestyle. The Series events will include the following events:
Ocoee Whitewater Games May 18-20
Potomac Whitewater Festival June 1-3
Animas River Days June 8-10
Subaru Gorge Games July 14-22
“We are extremely excited to be involved with the Gorge Games,” said Rich
Bowers, Executive Director of American Whitewater. “Gaining national attention for river conversation issues is American Whitewater’s mission and working with the Gorge Games team will be very rewarding for our members and the paddling community in general.”
“We saw this as an excellent opportunity to expand the Subaru Gorge Game’s involvement with the sport of kayaking and support American Whitewater’s efforts in river conservation,” commented Rufus Frost, Director of Adventure Sports for Octagon. “We liked what Outdoor Play started last year and saw it as a great fit for our plans to build a series of feeder events in each Subaru Gorge Games competitive category.”
The Gorge Whitewater Series welcomes the support of our national promotional partners; Hooked on the Outdoors and Paddler Magazine, as well as premier industry sponsor Lotus Designs. In addition, local marketing plans are being drafted to ensure that everyone knows when the Gorge Whitewater Series is coming to town.
American Whitewater is a national nonprofit river conservation organization with a membership of close to 8,000 individual whitewater boating enthusiasts and more than 160 local paddling club affiliates representing over 80,000 paddlers. American Whitewater is a grassroots organization accomplishing the intricate work of restoring flows to miles of whitewater rivers across the country through a network of dedicated volunteers, a few paid staff, and a board of directors. American Whitewater activities fall into five main areas: conservation, access, events, safety and education. For American Whitewater information and memberships, call 301-589-9453 or visit
www.americanwhitewater.org.
Octagon is the sports and entertainment division of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG), one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing communications groups. Octagon offers clients marketing-led expertise across all major disciplines that make up the sports and entertainment market including athlete representation, event management, consultancy, property representation, merchandising, and TV rights sales and production. Only three years since its inception Octagon employs over 1,200 people in 41 offices in 19 countries.