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The Kern River Festival is an annual event held in Kernville, California on the Wild & Scenic Kern River. Festival events include a NOWR sanctioned whitewater rodeo, the T.J. Classic slalom race, and a Downriver race. The 1998 Festival also hosted a second slalom race, the USCKT sanctioned Western Regional Slalom Qualifier. Competitors in this race were trying to qualify for the National Team Trials.
In the movie River Wild, you may have heard a hard-rowing Meryl Streep comment, "I'm trying to get us out of the hole!" A hole is a hydraulic feature in a river where the water flow reverses back on itself, somewhat similar to a broken wave at the beach. While most river runners do their best to stay away from holes, rodeo competitors try to stay in a hole while performing a series of gymnastic maneuvers such as cartwheels and spins. In the photo above the kayaker is scoring points for doing a cartwheel.
The goal in slalom is to negotiate a series of "up" and "down" gates as fast as possible without touching the gates. There is usually a total of about 25 gates. Up gates are usually colored red and down gates green. If you miss a gate, or go through the gate traveling the wrong direction, 50 seconds is added to your time. If you touch a gate, two seconds is added to your time. The T.J. Slalom Classic honors Tom Johnson, long time Kernville resident and boater, and coach of the first U.S. kayaking Olympic Team in 1972. Tom assisted in the design and setup of the Festival slalom course, as well as qualifying gate judges, and boats, for the Regional race.
In a Downriver race, competitors paddle down a multi-mile section of a whitewater river as fast as possible. The boats used in this event range from short and slow whitewater boats, to special wildwater designs. The wildwater boats are long and ungainly, and are difficult to maneuver, but are very fast.
NOWR - National Organization of Whitewater Rodeos
USCKT - United States
Canoe and Kayak Team
