Monday, 30 May 2016

The 2016 Puntledge River Paddling Festival was amazing



by Keith and Heather Nicol
Tarp and Play rapid is a great play feature
     Last year the Puntledge River Paddling Festival was cancelled due to the dry winter and spring but this year with a more normal snow pack the event took place and it was impressive. The event has been going on for 12 years and is usually held toward the end of May when a weekend dam release of water raises water levels to make things interesting on the Puntledge River located in Courtenay, B.C. We do some whitewater canoeing and sea kayaking but we definitely enjoyed seeing the expert kayakers drop over Stoten Falls and perform at the “Tarp and Play” wave on May 28 and May 29. We even saw several surfers strutting their stuff at “Tarp and Play” rapids which was also exciting.  This is a great spectator event and we suggest people who are interested in watching some great river paddling and surfing should make a note of it for next year. For more information see:  http://surfkayak.org/   Here are 2 videos of the action- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQgh_P803jM  (surfers) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G50QcIU2qxU  (kayakers) .

Dropping off of Stoten Falls
Tarp and Play Wave is located close to the shore which is good for spectators
The river surfers where impressive

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