We were lucky to get to attend the river festival called FIBArk in Salida CO in June. Our Grand Canyon river expert, Mark, was already going to be there, so we scheduled our rafting class around it.
John did the running races, including the hill climb (straight up the hill to the town "S" and straight back down), and I joined him for the 10K road run.
The highlights of the weekend, however, were the water events. Here's Mark getting ready for one of his slalom races:
Go Mark, looking good!
Stand-up paddle racing, complete with fun inflatable obstacles:
An interested spectator:
Mark getting ready to hang some "prize tags" across the river in prep for the hooligan race - anyone who could grab one on the way down the river might win something big (or not), which incentivized lots of flinging of boat passengers into the air to reach for them:
The scene at the water park, with regular rafts floating through the middle of the festivities:
The hooligan race is something to see. Groups create all manner of creative and curious rafts, which supposedly will stay afloat while entertaining the crowds. I believe this one is made from beer kegs, and I'm not sure what's going on with that orange mat:
Waterlogged, barely afloat, backwards, but the unicorn looks great:
I cannot recall exactly what's going on here with the smoke, but the floating car was funny:
The Scooby Mystery Time Machine (with working headlights!) and some kind of rudimentary barge:
Rainbow!
After waiting out some rain and waiting for all (or most) of the entrants to get their creations back up to the starting line, the second pass came down all at once, with varying levels of success:
Simple and effective:
The crowd favorite was still upright, and they were declared the winner:
On the final day of events, John captured the scene at the crazy river dog competition:
And the final highlight, standup paddle boxing:
I'm not sure how they do it, but it sure is entertaining to watch!
Fun weekend, go to FIBArk if you ever get a chance!
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