From The Denver Post (Scott Willoughby):
Nearly 100 competitors — from ages younger than 10 to older than 50 — signed up to race the whitewater slalom Saturday through a course of “gates” strung above the Arkansas River at FIBArk Festival, telling veterans of the Olympic paddling discipline that the sport some have written off as dead on the vine remains ripe for a new generation…
As part of the 62-year-old FIBArk Festival, slalom racing was introduced to “America’s oldest and boldest whitewater festival” in the 1950s, joining the 26-mile downriver kayak race as the technical test for the title of “First in Boating on the Arkansas River.” More than 50 years later, it is still attracting top competitors from around the world, including a half- dozen Olympic athletes and world champions from five nations.
In slalom racing, paddlers negotiate a course similar to that of the namesake skiing discipline, the difference being a two-second penalty for touching any of the 20 gates they paddle past. The skill is evident as kayaks and canoes no shorter than 3.5 meters (about 11 1/2 feet) negotiate tricky river currents in order to pass through the gates in both downstream and upstream directions. Miss the move — or pass through upside down — and the penalty is an insurmountable 50 seconds.
More Arkansas Basin coverage here.