Fibark has to be one of the biggest festivals I’ve ever been to. Based out of Salida, Colorado the event brings in people from all over the state and paddlers from all over the world.

Bringing back the old WS logo!

My initial thought was, wow the carnival is here the same week as a kayaking event, cool. The reality was that the carnival was there for the kayaking event. Along with freestyle, there was a boater cross, slalom race, raft race and the crowd favourite the hooligan race. The hooligan race is basically a bunch of crazy people that race through downtown in there own raft creations. One team actually had a ramp and a fake ring of fire that people were going down and through the ring on roller blades, skateboards etc. Pretty impressive…and hilarious.

Crazy Hooligans

Team Dagger and Wave Sport rented a house close to the play hole and on the road the parade travels on. The parade picked a bad road to travel on, nothing but a bunch of guys yelling at the clowns to peal out in their clown cars. At one point a guy and his girl friend rode by on their motorcycle and had to stop…sure enough right in front of all of us they fell over. I think everyone watching laughed at us heckling them more than they did at them for falling over. His girlfriend even smacked him after they got up…heh heh heh.

Entry Moving

The Salida hole is without a doubt the best stop on the Colorado tour. You can do every hole more out there and the better paddlers can link them together. The competition was fierce and the final results looked like this:

1. Eric Jackson
2. Steven Wright
3. Bryan Kirk
4. Ed Smith
5. John Myers
6. Nick Troutman
7. Kelsey Thompson
8. Ben Guska
9. Leif Anderson
10. Jud Keiser

Kelsey Thompson