In this photo by Ted Ressell, local Kern boater Landon Lipke enders his RPM during the 1997 Kern River Festival Pro/Expert Rodeo.

The rodeo hole was in the rapid just below Black Bottom Falls. This is either near the end of the Chamise Gorge run, or beginning of the Salmon Falls run, depending on where you like to take-out or put-in. According to COE data the flow at Kernville on the day of the rodeo was about 1700 cfs, and going up. This is one of the sections of the Upper Kern from which water is diverted at Fairview Dam. Normally 600 cfs is taken from the river, but during the rodeo some additional water was released.