Who's gonna take the reins?

I propose a casual gathering that involves a lower icicle creek race and freestyle comp at whatever spot is in. Camping up the icicle or mnt. home road or something. No one has to step up and "organize" or get sponsors or any of that. That's it. If someone wants to do more, then that is cool, but I don't have the desire to organize an event, so I certainly don't expect anyone else to. If everyone is in Der Town at the same time, something fun will happen.

I think we crapped that bed. Something about all the pallets in Dryden being missing the next morning and a late night mini-cooper road rally and the appearance of a naked fire demon.

I'm pretty confident we could still do something alongside the river in Dryden, if we wanted. Its more about communicating in advance and scheduling it.

That said, I'm w/ Jonathan: the events are cool like the race and freestyle event, but I don't see why it needs to be some big blow out event w/ sponsers n such. Its more about hanging out and sharing some river time with a bunch of paddlers in one spot at one time.

We got so much to boat year round, we get spread out and hardly see each other. We get spread out not only geographicly, but temporally along the calendar year as our schedules and lives permit. That's not a complaint though, because the result is a cornicopia of uncrowded rivers to choose from. But if there's a bunch of boaters in cashmere/der town, good times will be had indeed.

If it stays in the Wenatchee Valley, I think it has to happen ideally when we have various creeking options (Ingalls/Peshastin, Ici, high water playrun, ect.)

I think it needs to be on a different weekend than riverfest though, because two parties are better than one and I hate having to choose. Also I probably wont be around memorial day weekend. The raft company that essentially taught me how to kayak and raft is having a 50 year anniversary back east in Ohiopyle and I don't plan on missing that. That's gonna be a HUGE event with tons of old friends in attendence...

Cooperfest does sound cool though and there is no reason the PP Ball needs to be at the same place the same time every year. Sure, the Cooper may end up excluding the weekend warrior who only playboats the wenatchee, but really the cooper is a widely accessible run for just about anyone who has a modern creekboat and a passion to boof it. I like the idea. If we can get some dates in the works, I can schedule the time off (I work weekends).

I just remember the first year we had the ball up Icicle. It was just a bunch of peeps stoked to boat. No sponsers, just an organic self organizing event.


Edited by jP - 20 Mar 2014 at 4:09pm

That's funny James!  it's amazing how after having kids makes you gravitate towards calm campfires and just a few beers!  A family boaterfest would be awesome, especially if a class 2 stretch suitable for duckies with kids in them was close by.  If someone wants to make this happen I would help as much as I could.  Sky is good because all the different difficulty levels are close by.

Jimmy

I was not saying cooperfest should replace the ball or any other event. Just that IMO it is a better venue for families with kids, at least in terms of camping. There is a sweet camp area just south of french cabin creek road and it has great swimming on the lake and a river side too.

The Lap record will be the highlight certainly because I know I can easily beat my personal best as long as Shell Bee doesn't keep stealing my shuttles and thwarting my efforts!

Family Cooperfest would be great!!! But Creek-it, dont blame my 7 laps to your 5 on me stealing shuttles. If I recall, I found you fishing on river left below Norm's. Its all about priorities!

Edited by septimus prime - 21 Mar 2014 at 10:53am

Steps:
1. Call Phil, reserve the spot
2. Contact waste management and get a dumpster
3. Get a porto John
4. Icicle Creek Brewery sponsor
5. New Belgium Sponsor
6. Cascade Paddle sports sponsor
7. Party

I'm unfortunately out for planning this year, but def want to see a ball happen. We could definitely reserve Sunistich Canyon again, and we could try and get a group site at Icicle. Who will take the reins?

Being new to the area I would love for this event to go through. Meeting new friends never got any easier than a weekend full of kayaking!! Please someone make this happen!!!!!

What about an added event this year say a sprint through Chaos on Tumwater?

Last year was the first PP ball I did not attend since it's inception. There were various little reasons for this but mainly it's location, location, location! Phil's site is da bomb. No other location offers access like that esp. considering the event during water levels. Nothing beats it. So, I'm with Jed and everyone else who advocates for the simple slick set-up. No need for extravagance and events. Just a community of whitewater lovers getting together NEXT to the river and living it up. Everyone pays to camp, I'd easily pay $20 for two nights if that's what it cost.

that's some funny sh*t.

Dude, no offense meant at all- but seriously:
What would distinguish such an event from every other highwater Tum trip you paddle, Sam? You're still gonna be boating with 2-4 of the same eligible 6-10 boaters in the region that you always boat Tum w/, because when Tumwater is cranking out its monsterous frieght train at 10,000 cfs or more, that's always gonna be about the size of the available pool of paddlers who will step up to your brand of, uh, casual boat'n, if that's what you consider it. Ok, maybe some out of town crew will roll thru and inflate the "Tumwater Eligible" number to 10-14.

Hell, throw in a local knuckhead or two who are perhaps as of yet just a little too big for their goretex britches, and you just might have yourself an event with as many as 8-12 participants!

But I doubt it. Still, not trying to crush your aspirations, I think its a great idea. I'll show up. Probably just from the guard rail in my dry clothes since you'll probably organize it at the last second. But if I knew in advance and if it didn't conflict with other stuff goin on, I'd totally volunteer to set safety proper-like at the bottom of Chaos, Throw Bag and Chase Boat at the ready.

What's that? No need to set safety, huh? After all, peeps are probably running Site Zed in Pool Toys, now, so...



Seriously though, I'd happily set safety below Chaos, if there is an "event"