If ever the Rotary Centennial Bridge were to buckle under excessive weight, it would be during the Whitehorse Whitewater Rodeo.
Scores of spectators lined the railing of the footbridge, heads bowed, watching paddlers below perform aquatic acrobatics, at the annual Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club event on Aug. 17.
There were loops, spins, cartwheels, and other more colourful named tricks like the phonics monkey and space Godzilla.
“I grew up here, grew up paddling with all these guys, so I like to come out to this event every time,” said Whitehorse’s Oli Roy-Jauvin. “It’s just great to see the whole paddling community out and have a little bit of competition. We don’t get to do that often.”
Roy-Jauvin was the big winner this year, paddling off with three titles in his boat. The 27-year-old won the downriver race, the slalom race, and the advanced freestyle kayak competition for his first time.
“I’m pretty happy about that one,” said Roy-Jauvin. “I wasn’t really competitive. I was just out to have fun with my friends tonight.”
As always, Kalin Pallett emceed the event, encouraging the crowd to cheer on competitors, and kayakers to paddle hard in their stubby freestyle watercraft as they got washed off the manmade wave.
Also as usual, Yukon Energy helped out by letting more water through its dam to boost the waves for the competition on the Yukon River.
“We were very fortunate to have such nice weather and I think it makes people enjoy it overall,” said organizer Megan Seiling. “There were a lot of people standing on the bridge and spectating, which is nice to see. We didn’t have really high numbers this year, but there was still a good turnout, which was nice.”
A little over 20 paddlers took part in their year’s rodeo, which also included boogie board and freestyle canoe competitions.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
Results
Boogie board (youth)
1st Luanda Provonost
2nd Hazel Lewis
3rd Felicity Vangel
Boogie board (adult)
1st Alex Jessup
2nd Will O’Brian
3rd Lyndsay Patanaude
Freestyle canoe
1st Trevor Braun
2nd Pelly Braun
3rd Brian Groves
Freestyle kayak (intermediate)
1st Merick Moritz
2nd Kieran Knowles
3rd Nadine n/a
Freestyle kayak (advanced)
1st Oli Roy-Jauvin
2nd Jason Zrum
3rd Luke Morris
Downriver race
1st Oli Roy-Jauvin
2nd Will O’Brian
3rd Luke Morris
Slalom race
1st Oli Roy-Jauvin
2nd Connor Oliver-Beebe
3rd Luke Morris
