December 17, 2011
 

Dear Wildwater Racers and Friends:

I hope that this holiday season comes with health and happiness for you and yours.

The election of the Wildwater Committee for the 2012/2013 term of office has been held. Three of the current members will be stepping down - John Pinyerd, Chris Hipgrave and Chris Norbury. We wish them well in their future plans and hope that they will continue to be active in wildwater paddling. You can see who is on the committee for 2012/2013 in the first article in this newsletter.

The bids have been reviewed and the venue for the 2012 USA Wildwater National Championships has been selected. The Nationals will be held in Jackson, Wyoming and the tentative dates (pending permit approval by the US Forest Service) are May 25-27, in conjunction with the 2012 Wyoming Whitewater Championships and Festival. Thanks to Jeremy Rodgers and Aaron Pruzan for putting together the bid and for volunteer to hold the Nationals. The official announcement of the event will be posted as soon as it is available.

I'm also happy to report that Liquid Adventures Kayak School is promoting wildwater/downriver racing. They have a fleet of new Wavehoppers for sale to their students and to anyone else who is interested. See the link in their article for more about their program and the Wavehoppers. In a similar vein, I received word from Zoar Outdoors that they also have new Wavehoppers for sale. See their article for details.

The 2012 USA Wildwater calendar is slowly taking shape. Please check it out at www.usawildwater.com/races/2012_Calendar.pdf and let me know about any additions for your favorite wildwater/downriver races.

I have had no feedback on the preliminary 2011 USA Wildwater Ranakings, so I changed the title to make them the Final 2011 USA Wildwater rankings. Click on the link below to see where you and your fellow athletes ended up in the rankings.

USA Canoe/Kayak announced last week that they are relocating from Charlotte, NC to Oklahoma City, OK. More about the announcement can be foound in the last article in this e-Zine.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the new year.

Chuck Brabec
Editor & Webmaster, USAWildwater.com