Whitewater competitions aren’t鈥攖ypically鈥攕pectator friendly. They鈥檙e usually held at locations convenient to pedestrians, meaning relatively flat sections with a few fun waves. , for example, were held on a burbling river with hip-high waves. It had about as much verve as a dressage competition.
Enter the Whitewater Grand Prix, happening this week in eastern Canada. The third edition of the two-week long competition has together for a six-stage competition at the peak of the spring runoff, when rivers are at their most explosive. The events are split between dangerous downriver races on flooding waterways, and freestyle competitions on double-overhead breaking waves鈥攁ll in remote, fearsome, seldom-paddled locations.
鈥淣inety percent of kayakers wouldn鈥檛 touch any of these venues,鈥 says event organizer Patrick Camblin, 鈥渂ut we need spots like this to showcase the best paddling.鈥 Already, four competitors have dropped out with injuries, two kayaks have been destroyed, and one competitor was nearly swept to his death over an un-runnable 70-foot falls.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/93571261
Camblin鈥檚 strategy for the event is similar to mountain biking鈥檚 , the high-flying fat-tire spectacle that’s produced a handful of jaw-dropping viral videos. At the WWGP, the idea is similar: Film the carnage action, edit it well, and watch the Internet go wild. The big difference is that there鈥檚 no prize money. Camblin hopes the event gets enough attention to change that in the future. For now, he and a handful of friends have stuffed themselves into two-bed motel rooms in northern Quebec, chugged Red Bull, and . All pro-bono. Such is the effort to create the Next Big Thing in whitewater paddling. Check out the .