The FIBArk Festival is the longest running whitewater festival in the nation and a crucial aspect of the culture of Salida, Colorado where it has been hosted over its fifty two-year history. During the summer of 2000 the freestyle and Slalom competition were held at the Arkansas River Whitewater Park & Greenway site in Salida. Due in large part to the preliminary work done by the Arkansas River Trust over the spring of 2000 the site was greatly improved and provided an exciting venue for the competition. Below is an article written for Mountainbuzz.com by the Executive Director of the Arkansas River Trust, Michael Harvey.
Birth of a Wave
By Michael Harvey
The men's pro final, at the 2000 FIBArk Freestyle competition was, in many ways, an exciting climax for a small group of local boaters here in Salida. Watching Clay Wright and Eric Jackson one-upping each other in our new wave with the crowd loving every second of it; felt to us like our first victory. In the middle of last winter, as we were scrambling around to line up the contractor and jump through governmental hoops, this was what we hoped for; two of the best paddlers in the world throwing down in our community at the first FIBArk of the new millennium.
Anyone who has paddled in Salida or been to a FIBArk over the last few years has surely thought it. What a great location for a river park. Right in the middle of some of the best paddling in the State. Halfway between the Numbers and the Gorge and certainly the best spot to relax and have a beer with your friends after a killer day on the river. However, with all of the potential, the river corridor through Salida is one of, if not the, least attractive sections of river in the Upper Arkansas Valley. Forget for a second the existence of a play wave; you can't even walk along the banks in Salida or let your kid splash around in a small eddy. Years of filling the banks with garbage and neglect have left a community literally separated from its river.
Thanks largely to the work of a few local boaters and renowned whitewater park designer Gary Lacy, in the late Eighties and early Nineties some work was done to improve this situation. A boat ramp was put in as well as some strategically placed boulders to create a spot for local paddlers to run gates or just practice a few eddy turns. However, over the last few years it had become painfully clear that a new bit of momentum was needed. River Parks like the Clear Creek Whitewater Park in Golden are setting the standard for a river corridor completely integrated into the community. With trail access, safe and attractive banks, and world class whitewater. Rivers and waterways are a natural attraction for all types of people and that is what we are striving towards here in Salida. Not just a whitewater course for elite paddlers to train, but rather a river corridor that is an integrated and vital part of the community and a source of local pride.
So, last fall PT Wood and I sat down to make a plan. We established two basic goals and then started to outline how we would accomplish them. The first goal was to fix the eroded bank immediately downstream of the boatramp. This would require removing some undercut trees and shoring up the bank. This was the most immediate concern because we had lost a huge cottonwood that fell into the river the summer of '99 and the rest of the bank looked to be soon to follow. This aspect of the project also included improving the bank and properties surrounding the FIBArk Boathouse, to give the area more of a park like feel. The second goal was to improve the whitewater at the boatramp and specifically to create a feature for people to play in that would be there at many flows. The rising popularity of freestyle paddling and the money and attention that the sport is beginning to attract made it clear that Salida had to get on track or risk losing the freestyle component of the nations oldest whitewater event.
As I sit here three days after watching Clay Wright and Eric Jackson rip the hole to pieces over the weekend I have realized that somehow, amazingly, we got it right! Before you think I am patting myself on the back too much though, understand that this is only one piece of the puzzle. I have a vision for the river corridor in Salida that encompasses much more than just one sweet surf wave. We are working on the next phase right now. I hope that in few years people can walk or bike along the Arkansas, stop at a bench to relax and let their kids play in the water, as well as kayakers ripping new features in our park. We have huge challenges ahead. Union Pacific Railroad owns most of land that is crucial to developing this park and dealing with a corporation that big is no easy task. However, I am optimistic. I am sure that this dream will come true. My advice to anyone who wants to build a river park in their town is get organized, get motivated, and draw your inspiration from your passion for the river. The Arkansas River Trust, and myself have a lot more to learn and a long road ahead. But, I still could not help thinking that it seemed like we were winning last weekend.