From The Pueblo Chieftain (Tracy Harmon):
Snowmelt continues to buoy the river flow around 3,000 cubic feet per second which should make for some exciting finishes in the river events. Events kick off from 7 to 9 a.m. Thursday with a pancake breakfast in downtown Salida followed by a 10 a.m. Pine Creek Boater X rafting event…
The 62nd annual event is sponsored by New Belgium Brewing, maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale, making it a must for the brewing company to enter a floatable craft in the Hooligan race slated for 5:30 p.m. Saturday just upstream of the F Street Bridge. “The whimsical factor of FIBArks hooligan craft race is just off the charts — there is nothing like it,” said Shawn Hines of New Belgium Brewing. “We’ll have a homemade boat that we’ll enter and cross our fingers that it keeps us all dry.”
From The Mountain Mail (Arlene Shovald):
Former downriver champion Erich Seidel will be inducted into the FIBArk Hall of Fame during the Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at Salida SteamPlant. Seidel won the downriver competition in 1953 when the FIBArk celebration was 5 years old. Seidel died in 2003 and his family will receive the honors posthumously on his behalf. His children, Tom Seidel and Christina Seidel-Harrison and grandson Craig Harrison will be in Salida for the ceremony Wednesday. “The family was proud and honored to learn of Erich’s induction into the FIBArk Hall of Fame,” Craig Harrison said. “Erich’s kids, Christina and Tom, both have kayaked casually and Tom competed in the FIBArk Juniors in the early 1970s.” Seidel, a German kayaker, was sponsored by Klepper when he came to Salida in 1953. He worked in Munich, Germany, and in New York for Klepper, primarily as a sales representative.
In 1953 he and a friend, Theo Bock, set up the first slalom course on the Arkansas River to demonstrate gate running and thus introduced that aspect to FIBArk and whitewater sports in America. Seidel and his wife, Helga, moved to Salida in 1954. He and his friend, Xavier Wuerfmannsdobler, explored and paddled rivers of the west and together influenced many local paddlers, among them Eric Frazee who, at 17, represented the United States in the World Champion Slalom in Germany in 1957. Seidel’s name lived on in the Salida area long after he quit competing, because of an event one spring when he made the first successful descent through Brown’s Canyon and fell into a huge hole. His Foldboat was ruined, but he escaped and today the name Seidel’s Suck Hole continues as a dreaded rapid. Seidel had a home in Maysville for awhile, then moved to New York and eventually returned to Germany where he continued kayaking until he was in his early 60s. His former wife was the only person in the family to see him compete at FIBArk, but his son, Tom, has been in Salida almost every year for the festivities and the rest of the family has been here several times. They said they and are delighted to be present for the ceremony Wednesday honoring Erich.
More whitewater coverage here.