Getting wet and wild

The overall winner of the 30th annual Bigfork Whitewater Festival gets his or her name engraved on the trophy currently residing in the Garden Bar on Electric Avenue. And that's the whole deal, prize-wise.

So obviously these wide-eyed, river runners must be competing for the sheer pleasure of it, right?

"It's a chance to show you're the best," said Mike Dezzani, co-director of the festival with his wife, Nicki. "That's why you do it."

The whitewater part of the Whitewater Festival takes place on the Swan River and includes several events. There was a beginner slalom and an expert slalom on Saturday. And today there'll be a mile-long river race, as well as a wild and crazy whitewater rodeo.

The object of the slalom races was to paddle through the course's downriver and upriver gates as fast as possible. Each gate was suspended on ropes over the river and comprised of a 4-foot wooden bar with two skinny PVC legs hanging off it. There was a 5-second penalty for making contact with a gate and a 50-second penalty for missing the gate altogether.

The beginner course was laid out near the bridge and canoeists of all levels, as well as less-experienced kayakers, were advised to take that route.

"It's more dangerous for the canoe guys because they're more likely to fall out of the boat," said Joe Haun, longtime canoeist. "We're too exposed."

Greg Fortin, who competed twice at the U.S. Open Canoe Nationals, was also racing this week-end. His craft is a homemade canoe of Fiberglas, kevlar and carbon fiber. There are only four like it in the world, he said.

The expert slalom started at the bottom of dam and went for an eighth of a mile. Most of the cheering crowd was hunkered down out at Big Rock watching the action.

It might have been 75 degrees outside, but it was anybody's guess what the water temperature was. "Very cold" was a conservative guess. The canoeists wore wetsuits and booties and most of the kayakers had on dry tops and shorts.

The downriver race is scheduled for 11 a.m. today. Kayakers will be started in groups of three, with the winner being the one who can sprint the mile-long course the fastest. Winning time predictions range from 5-10 minutes.

And then there is the whitewater rodeo, which starts at 2 p.m.

"Rodeo is a judged event," Dezanni said. "We've got two tries to do as many tricks as you can in a quarter-mile stretch of the river. We do cartwheels, flips, spins, loops and whatever we can possibly squeeze into that amount of space."

The Bigfork Whitewater Festival used to be part of a professional whitewater circuit, but the pros stopped coming about four years ago when the circuit disbanded. Now it's mostly local competitors, instead of all those people from away.

"Now it's more fun," said Chad Colby, who is in his sixth year of competing. "These people right here now are just as good as the pros."

Registration for today's run/bike/paddle triathlon starts at 9 a.m. at the Garden Bar.

Money generated from the festival goes to support Sliters Park, Swan River Corridor Committee and the American Whitewater Association.

And the best way to train for next year? "You just paddle your whole life, I guess," said participant Sean Kelly.