River Tails

Augusta, GA wants to push for their own whitewater rafting park as rafting travel picks up popularity across the U.S. Augusta city is joining the hoards of towns and cities we’ve already mentioned with plans to utilize canals, river and streams to turn around whitewater rafting parks.

The USNWC (US National Whitewater Center) seems to be holding ground currently, but is is a large center aimed at not only the local market, but professional paddlers and competitions. The verdict is yet to be determined as all the other areas across the nation try to tap into the popular sport. More updates as they open, and we will see where whitewater parks stand in a few years.

The 22-day Gauley Rafting season has winded down, and once again it has brought in close to $45 million to West Virginia and the outfitters. Although numbers have been on the decline since 2000, the last year have seen a slowing in the decline.

Hopefully that trend will at least hold steady. For many of the outfitters, Gauley river rafting makes or breaks the season. Amazing that in a matter of days, your season can be up or down. But when you can charge a premium (around $145 for a half-day trip) for some of the most exciting whitewater rafting in the world, it has the potential for making a lot of money.

The exact numbers are not in yet, but I will report some of them as soon as I get me hands on the info. It will also be interesting to see how some of the larger companies fare with all the mergers and consolidation in the West Virginia rafting industry.

The Niobrara River has few rapids and is knee-deep in most spots, inviting a journey that’s more about socializing than sport.

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A 21st-century canoeist follows the explorer’s path along Lake Champlain and listens for echoes of four centuries past.

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Clarification- the Grand Canyon did not flood.

The recent flash flood in the Grand Canyon has news agencies (surprise) reporting that the Grand Canyon was flooding. In actuality, a side canyon, Havasu got flash flooded by an earth dam that broke from the flash rain storms in the area.

Grand Canyon rafting trips were in the canyon at the time, and the only rafting trip affected by the flooding was a private boat trip that lost their rafts that were parked at the mouth of the flooded canyon. Western River Expeditions saw the raft without rafters and reported the incident to the park service.

All of the evacuations and emergency helicopter transfers related to the incident were the local tribe resident who lived along the Havasu Canyon and whose homes were threatened by the flash flood.

NO COMMERCIAL RAFTING COMPANIES OR TRIPS WERE IN DANGER OR AFFECTED BY THE FLOOD.

Hope that clears some of the questions up, and if you have any more, feel free to comment on this post and I can answer any of your inquiries!

There’s a lot to think about before pulling out the checkbook and buying a canoe or a yacht.

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Along the same note of my last whitewater rafting park in KY post, I ran across another article recently, supporting the concept that many of the adventure sports will find counterparts in an indoor/manmade arena.

Jeff Coy on Hospitality.net brought in some interesting point regarding the growing trend of man-made adventure sports. Rafting parks, surf pools and hotel water parks are all the examples he brought to the table. I agree with the emerging trend, and to a degree I personally would like to try the surf pools and surfing wave walls.

However, Coy also says that “sporting enthusiasts say it is hard to get away from work at the right time. It is difficult and expensive to travel to the coast when the perfect ocean wave is breaking or reach the backwoods when the whitewater river is cresting…”

I see these indoor arenas and play areas as a complimentary service within the same industry, and not really a competative force with the true outdoor sport. You will never be able to compare a man-made rafting course with a Grand Canyon rafting trip, or the rush of huge whitewater on the Gauley River. And I don’t think any of these “enthusiasts” are looking to replace the real experience with these indoor ones.

The trend of shorter vacations is real. So people looking for a real outdoor rafting trip will look for a 2 or 3 day trip, not a 6 or 7 day trip. The same hold true for skiing. An indoor ski slope acts as a great bunny hill. Man-made ski material in Europe allows skiier to practice even during the summer. But don’t think for a second that they will fore-go the mountain slope for a dinky indoor arena.

So it becomes more a matter of vacation time, and less about indoor versus outdoor. Outdoor adventure providers should shift some of their inventory to reflect that of the short-vacation trends, but also support the introduction of the indoor arena, as that may be exactly what the outdoor industry needs; a good introduction to the real deal.

WKYT 27 reported recently that officials are considering a whitewater park at the Kentucky-Virginia lines in hopes to boost tourism in the state. Right now, Kentucky is basically void of any decent “river rafting” option (as is the case with most of the Midwest), so this may provide an opportunity for not only the Kentucky residents, but neighboring states as well.

I assume that would be the main focus when officials say “tourism”, because I doubt visitors would make a special trip to Kentucky just for a whitewater rafting park. Plus, you have the US national whitewater center down in NC, and a few others across the East.

I would venture to say the most business would still be the local market (at least for the near future). When I was talking to one of the Marketing Directors at the USNWC a couple years ago when they first opened, he told us that their visitors and target market were Charlotte and Atlanta, both legitimate population centers nearest the center.

So a tourism boost? Possible, but the more realistic expectation would be to give the locals of KY and VA something to do.

USA Today ran a good article about white water rafting and the snow levels across the country. Laura Bly did a great job at talking to the right people and getting the facts on what is really happening across the nation.

The article was along the same tune as my last post, talking about how winter snow and water has various affects on outfitters across the nation. Overall, you find mixed reviews. Why? Not just the reasons I pointed out in my winter snowpack post, but also because many rivers now are dam controlled.

So even drought conditions and water concerns has no immediate impact on some rafting regions (Southeast, Northeast, limited west coast). The problem is getting the conception that river rafting is directly correlated with water levels.

But overall, the rivers and reservoirs across the nation are looking good for the season. It will be interesting to see if gas prices have a negative affect on the season. So far I have gotten mixed reviews, some good, some o.k., some dont know. YTBD!

The talk this season is of course the snowpack and water levels across the country. Global warming is obviously in full effect Most areas across the nation have experienced a good winter, which usually means that a good summer is to follow.

Good snow does not mean good river levels. Let me explain. We basically have two types of river-dependent factors to consider in the situation. Dam controlled rivers and natural flow rivers.

Earlier posts have talked about rivers across the nation changing over to dam controlled levels, in which certain river flows are guaranteed throughout the summer months. In general, good snow-pack and snow run-off are a good thing for dam controlled rivers. It means more water in the reservoir, and will continue to leave plenty of water flow throughout the coming years.

Natural flow rivers are a different story. Lets take a look at the Western U.S. as an example. The image here shows the current snow-pack levels across the various regions in the West. These numbers are a “percentage of normal”, meaning that anything close to 100 is a very good thing, and anythin over 100 means higher-than-normal levels. Many locations that feed large rivers have over 100% snowpack for the season (still). But the weather still plays an important factor as to whether the snow will produce high, constant water levels or not.

Even with a good winter, if the weather heats up too fast, you run into flooding and fast run-off. So essentially, you would have a nice spring rafting season, followed by normal (or even below normal) water levels for the rest of the season. So it really still depends on mother nature and the transitional temperature from winter to spring to summer.

So remember that when the news reports a good winter, we still need to hold-on and see how the spring rolls out to accurately predict a good rafting season or not.