SATURDAY March 21st
9:30am meet at the cabin near the bridge over the Wind at Stabler, Washington to prep for the morning practice run.
10:30am shove off for 1st practice run.

12:30pm arrive at the High Bridge take out. Quick load and shuttle back up to the cabin for lunch and prep for the 2nd practice run.

2:30pm shove off for 2nd practice run.
4:15pm quick load and shuttle back up for Saturday evenings festivities at the cabin, bring a lawn chair or tarp if its raining.

5pm barbeque, beverages, music, silent auction...

SUNDAY March 22nd
9:30am registration begins.
10:45am registration ends.

10:45 boaters meeting.
11:15 floaters depart to set up safety, take pictures, shoot footy. We will coordinate where these folks will be stationed at the boaters meeting.

3 Mile Downriver Race
12- HIGH NOON : Mass start kayak, all boats 9 feet or less. Lets just call this a creek boat race but if you wanna throw down in a playboat go for it. If enough folks show up with a playboat and wish to create a class we will.

12:05 Mass start R4 raft (R2 if levels are low, below 4.6, will be determined that morning).

12:10 Mass start catarafts.

12:15 Mass start whatever is left.

1:45 Arrive High Bridge take out for quick load and shuttle back up to the cabin for race results and awards.

3pm Awards and chillin at the cabin. Not sure if we will have food or beverages on this day so please bring your own.

•     All boaters that have developed a Class IV+ skill level are encouraged to attend. You don’t need to be a racer to participate.

•     Parking is limited- carpool. At the take out please leave your vehicle at the top of the dirt road. It really is just a short walk or jog up there and this will keep everyone happy.

•     At the put in please park your vehicle on the shoulder of the main road and leave the driveway at the cabin clear as provides drive through turnaround access. (No backing up the paved road by the cabin).

•     $15 covers shuttles for both days, Saturday night barbeque and stuff, ACA insurance, sweet prizes, misc. event costs.





Edited by James - 10 Mar 2009 at 5:58pm

Luke from Next Adventure is ironing out those details for the kayaks.
I did speak to him today and he mentioned a class 8.6 feet or less, and possibly a playboat class if there is enough interest.
Regarding the real long boats, ie sea kayak or downriver race specific boat we are trying to phase those out. The water level will likely be on the low side.   

The Upper Wind Race is March 21-22 and we wanted to make sure that the rules
are clear for the kayaking races. We are trying to set rules that are
consistent throughout the Western Whitewater Series. For more info on the
event go to www.oregonraftingte am.com <http://www.oregonra ftingteam. com%20>The
rules are pretty simple. Good Luck and we will see you there! Oh ya, don't
forget about the ORT Freaky Friday fundraiser this Friday night at
Madison's!

- the format for the kayak races is a down river mass start
- we will have a long boat class which is over 8'6" and a short boat class
of under 8"6"
- the long boat class is limited to whitewater boats only (for safety
reasons)
- no malicious intent to harm another paddler this will lead to
disqualification
- other than that show up ready to get er done!

--
Luke Spencer
Event Organizer
NW Riot Tech Rep
NW Level 6 Rep
West Coast Neosport/Hyperflex Rep
eddyhopperluke@ gmail.com
Ph.#503-341- 4268

I guess I need a longer boat. My 9' Diablo is an awesome downriver boat, but it's useless when you break the boat classes at 8'6".

Edited by wetmouse - 16 Mar 2009 at 5:59pm

Good discussion.
The Wind Festival was indeed initially created with inflatables (rafts, catarafts) in mind. Turns out the kayaks outnumbered the rafts last year and the hard boaters had a blast.

Having fun and developing river communities is the soul of our efforts.

As evidenced by our 3rd place finish to yourself, Paul, and Hans at the Canyon Creek Race last year, our muscle and team focus wasn't good enough in a technical steep creeking environment. We all have our own individual interests, who's to say that one is better than the other.

It would be a shame to have a Truss Race opposed to a Wind Race, how about we do both? ORT guys certainly enjoy running the Truss as well.

Regarding the kayaks, the boat length thing is a tough one. We are simply attempting to establish a consistent criteria for the entire Western Whitewater Championship Series (WWCS). This series does include creeking venues such as the EF Lewis (which replaced Canyon Creek) and a Truss Race on May 30th. That race is not coordinated by us so we'll just have to wait and see what those coordinators who are doing all the work are comfortable setting up.

Bring whatever you want to the Wind this weekend and get after it, we'll give you a time and you can enjoy the barbeque and river community.
I apologize for not having the resources at this time to appease everyone, were doin our best and will keep working on it.     
Tim   

As far as I know....and bear in mind the event is still under development by first time organizers:
Whitewater Symposium in the morning.
Kayak only race on the Truss in the afternoon.
Raft, IK, and cat race from Maytag to Husum in the afternoon/ evening.

They want to keep things as simple as possible this year, quality over quantity. I applaud any and all efforts they make.    

Please go to our Events page for Upper Wind Festival updates:
http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/cal.shtml

I'll have the results up on the ORT site soon.

I screwed up last year and scheduled the Wind Race on Easter and I go to church most Sundays.

Got me scared Leif.

The EF Lewis Race has not been moved it is still scheduled for April 11-12th, 2009.

The EF Paddle ORT has down on their site is a paddling trip they are going to do there.  Probably in an attempt to train.  Better be training up there Tim, been rowing a Cat on flat water for 20+ days + have only had 3 beers that entire time + have enough pent up energy to easily paddle sprint for 45 minutes straight no problem. Better get in a couple extra practice laps there bud! haha.

See you all there!

Nice work Paul.