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Location: Cow Town | Who organized the first Kan fest and what features were used for the freestyle (or rodeo back then) competition? Bonus point to get the first year. |
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Grade 6
Posts: 1052
Location: Calgary | Mark Taylor?
Hollywood / Green Tongue?
1993? |
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Location: Cow Town | Wrong on all counts except the green tongue, but valiant effort. |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| hmmm ... maybe around the mid-1980's and I'm guessing the first organizer might have been Glen Crawford or John Lethbridge or more likely the kayak/ski instructor/guide shown here at one of the early rodeo's
and he's at one of the play features that was used, which might be recognizable with the rock wall in the background
so ... who's this and where?
 (Totem rodeo2.jpg)
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 Totem rodeo2.jpg (77KB - 20 downloads)
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Grade 1 User
Posts: 2
| This is a game I can play.
I won't give all the answers, but this picture is of a much younger Kevin Henderson at hollywood hole.
I will go through the stack of shirts to find the first year.
Patch borrowed a few for an anniversary. Must have been his size, I never saw them again. |
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Grade 6
Posts: 592
| Don't know them guys, but boy those bibs are old. Looks like a rare boat too, I don't think it's a Dancer, I think it's a Perception Eclipse. And of course a Nimbus paddle. |
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Location: Cow Town | That is Kevin, but not from the first festival. I think it was the second or maybe third, because there was an old school endo contest then too.
This picture provides a hint as to the other feature used and if you can identify the boat you can get the year, because this boat was a new model that year.
Request object error 'ASP 0104 : 80004005'
Operation not Allowed
/calpaddle/includes/include-upload.asp, line 46
Hmmm! I guess I am not allowed to post pictures anymore. Well ya'll just have to figure it out for yourself.
Edited by curmudgeon 2010-01-26 11:19 PM
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Grade 1 User
Posts: 2
| The other location was Miami Beach. The first year there were more open canoes than kayaks and the big trick was window shades, or drinking a beer while hand surfing.
Unfortunately the weather was the same hit or miss back then too. |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| Nope ... not Kevin, and not at Hollywood.
I think the boat is a Mirage. It was Peception's 4 m long boat before they figured out that shorter boats are more versatile and came out with the Dancer that was a leading seller for years.
(and for photo posting, maximum file size is 100 Kb - the possible problem?) |
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Location: Cow Town | Your right that has got to be the widowmaker. Who and when is a mystery to me. |
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Grade 4
Posts: 101
| Its definitely a mirage at the widow maker. It might be a much younger Jim McAllister?
I suspect they had to use widow maker, hollywood, the green tongue of death, and miami beach hole as thats all there was. This pre-dates my paddling but I think the mirage came out in the late 70s. Maybe 78 or 79. I had a Nimbus just like that one, bought used but I think it was new in 1984 so I'm guessing 1984 for the first rodeo.
Does anyone actually know the answer? |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| Yup, widowmaker.
I thought the kayak/ski instructor/guide would make it too easy. Think kayak instruction camps on the Red Deer, ocean kayak tours in the Gulf Islands, or deep powder in the Monoshee's. |
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Location: Cow Town | I'll have to ask Al about that. |
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Grade 6
Posts: 1052
Location: Calgary | I like this thread. I makes me feel young. |
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Grade 4
Posts: 101
| JD? |
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Grade 2 User
Posts: 14
| looks like Mark Stanley |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| Nope, so far. But it does look like a younger Jim McAllister and I suspect that both he and JD were there (it was a long time ago).
Mark Stanley would also be an excellent guess as an AB boater and a Monoshee ski guide - but, nope.
Lyle - you're pretty close
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Grade 6
Posts: 592
| The boat is more likely to be a Mirage I admit, but the Eclipse was around at the same time, before the Dancer, probably after the Mirage. It was shorter and stockier than the Mirage, with pointier ends, and the boat in this picture seems to look that way. It was slow. The only one I ever saw was a River Run company hardboat on the Ottawa, I broke it and that was the last I saw of the Eclipse ever. I did around a hundred runs of the Ottawa that summer in a Mirage. That was the high water summer of 1985, with double days for double pay. The good old days!
What ever happened to Mike and Jackie McAllister?
Edited by Barry 2010-01-27 6:27 PM
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Grade 6
Posts: 1052
Location: Calgary | Ok. So... who did the first Kanfest and what year? |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| So ... the paddler in the photo is Al Schaffer. In the 1980's and early 90's Al and Marion ran the Whitewater Institute from their home in Canmore and they then switched to ocean kayaking and moved to the wet coast, and in the winters they run the Blanket Glacier Chalet.
The picture was taken in 1984 and I think it might have been the first major whitewater rodeo in Alberta (??) It was on the Kan and before the modifications so Widowmaker and Hollywood were the features. As I recall, there was pretty substantial sponsorship from Totem Outfitters, the Hostel Shop, OBECO, etc. and the loot was mostly distributed by random draw - everybody who participated was entered. I don't remember any particular rules or any elaborate points system and the objective was pretty much entertainment - getting thrashed was always a crowd-pleaser.
Rodeo's were held at the Kan in subsequent years but in some years the annual, sponsored event was moved to the S-bend on the Red Deer. I don't remember who the original key organizer(s) was/were but suspect that Al, Glen Crawford, and John Lethbridge from Canmore were involved and I think John Dupuis might have been involved in getting the support from Totem (?? - really vague on this). Others might have better knowledge and there's probably some records somewhere (like, don't sue me).
Maybe the rodeo morphed into the Kan fest and Mark and Lyle would probably know much more of that history. |
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Grade 6
Posts: 592
| didn't their house back onto the pond in Canmore, where they had slalom gates up? |
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Grade 4
Posts: 101
| Didn't the AWA build the race course and canoe meadows in 1984? |
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Grade 4
Posts: 138
| To investigate the rodeo history, I dug deep into a dusty closet corner to find some old binders with the 'AWA Throw Bag', the Alberta Whitewater Assn. newsletters. They didn't have much about the rodeo's but I did discover this article about the history of the Kan. I scanned the newsletter and trapped the text and here it is:
From the: AWA Throw Bag, Spring 1986
The Story of the Kananaskis Canoe/Kayak Reserve
In 1983 some Alberta team members began to realize the potential of a training site near the traditional take—out of the barrier dam reach in Kananaskis Country. They built some rock walls by hand to make it easier to paddle upstream.
In 1984 several of those people (including me) returned to the Kananaskis site to train, We were surprised to find the rock walls built in 1983 were not destroyed by ice as would be the case in any other Alberta river. We also noticed that some additional rock walls had been built by local paddlers. We learned that the water in this section of river was either entirely on or entirely off, and that it never froze because the water released from the dam upstream would always be too warm to freeze before reaching this site.
That summer we travelled to Europe and to eastern North America, racing and training on almost every well—known man—made or man—altered slalom racing site: Liptovsk Mikulus (TCH), Augsburg (West Germany), Tacen (Yugoslavia), Myerhofen (Austria), Monshaw (West Germany), Merano (Italy), Jonquiere (Quebec), Minden (Ontario), Waseau (Wisconsin), Niagra (Wisconsin) and South Bend (Indiana). We became convinced that Alberta had potential for its own site on the Kananaskis River.
In the spring of 1985 the engineer in charge of construction of the day use area was watching Dave Reid training at the site. He called Dave over to the bank and asked if there was anything the paddlers would like to see included in the day use area. Dave shared our dream of river modifications with him. The engineer suggested that we submit a proposal to the Kananaskis Country Planning and Development Department (KCPDD).
Dave wrote a covering letter, Dale O’Brien wrote a letter of support on behalf of AWA and provided a video tape describing what I had seen done in Europe and eastern North America. I then travelled to the site and spent the weekend sketching a large map of the river bed as it might be if modified. Dave Reid and I delivered the letters, video tape, and map to Mr. Bob Jenkins, Director of the KCPDD.
Then we delivered the proposal, we met Mr. Ed Marshall, Director of Kananaskis Country. Mr. Marshall said he could come to the site to see part of a race scheduled for that weekend. When Mr. Marshall visited the site on the following Sunday, he was presented with an AWA hat by Darryl O’Brien and given a short tour. There were over 60 cars parked in the group camping area and over 100 boats everywhere. Mr. Marshall must have been very impressed. Four months later, the red tape cleared, we rolled onto the river with a cat and a back hoe. Kananaskis country and the AWA shared the cost of modifying 1 km of river bed.
Alberta now has on the Kananaskis a world—class whitewater preserve. Already, plans have been made to bring Richard Fox, the world champion, to Alberta and to the preserve in the spring of 1986. The 1986 Provincial Championships will be held on the Kananaskis and possibly the 1987 National Championships. Many more canoe/kayak training camps and races will be held at the Kananaskis preserve.
There is still a lot of work to be done by hand. Work parties will be scheduled through the summer. Please plan to come and throw a few rocks to ensure the future of the Kananaskis Canoe/Kayak Reserve.
Canoe/Kayak for tomorrow,
(R. W. (Bob) Smith) |
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