2008 AW Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival -- Wrap-up
By Barry Adams
Event Coordinator
 Barry!


Thanks to Kent Noble for the photo used above. 

We had a beautiful day on August 23, 2008 and a good time was had by both paddlers and spectators. Let’s get to the main reason for this event, however.
 
We (AW) were not happy with the progress for private boater access by the Bureau of State Parks. Commercial Use license agreements have been sent to six existing kayak instruction license holders for a pilot license that will provide access to Ohiopyle Falls. They are in the process of reviewing their options. We still do not have any private boater access without requiring a "Special Activities Agreement," which we were led to believe would happen in 2008. The Bureau of Parks has decided to hold public meetings this fall to gather input on a proposed private boater access pilot plan (which has not been provided as of today, 8/27/08) from stakeholders and users of the Falls. AW has submitted numerous proposals over the last ten years to gain additional access to the Falls, none of which were accepted except for the commercial use agreements. Ohiopyle State Park actually submitted a proposal for commercial and private usage last December. We are now in the process of formulating our next steps. Since the Bureau is taking this issue public, we will be asking all paddlers for their help in the weeks and months to follow. Please keep coming back to this page for additional updates and requests. AW and this event are committed to securing access to Ohiopyle Falls. Any news will be posted on our website, www.FallsRace.com.

This year’s event went very well. Some of the results of the competition are as follows:

Sprint Races
Overall Winner of the Oliver Cup was Geoff Calhoun of Bethesda, Maryland, who won for the third year in a row. Geoff also won the Upstream Race. Geoff Calhoun is one of the top Wildwater (Downriver Race) racers in the US and is ranked the number one US Wildwater boater in 2008. Geoff is only 22 years old. For the first time in the history of this race the 1-minute mark was broken. Not since Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile back on May 6, 1954 has there been a bigger moment. Well, maybe?
Kara Weld of Confluence PA had the fastest time in the Women's division. Kara is back after a two-year absence. In fact Kara, formerly on the US Olympic team and now co-owner of Immersion Research, has come in first in all but two years. Kara is still young. Is there another woman out there that can beat her?

FreeStyle
Overall Winner of the Jeff Snyder Cup was Adam Johnson of Warrenton, Virginia. Adam can be seen in a number of videos throughout the country. Monica Gokey of Vienna, Virginia also won the Freestyle event in the Women’s division. Virginia has some good paddlers, eh?


Complete results are on the website: click here.

We had participants from all over the country and a lot of paddlers from Canada. Most paddlers are content not to enter any competition and just see how many times they can go over the Falls. Not since the first year have we had so many paddlers. Somewhere between 200 and 300 paddlers ran the falls. The water level was a beefy 1.75 and stayed at that level throughout the event. The first horseshoe ledge took a number of paddlers and pummeled them into submission. If you got trapped in the ledge almost everyone had to swim out. Once again Eric Martin of Wilderness Voyageurs sponsored the World Championship Upstream Race on Entrance rapid of the Lower Yough. We had a town party sponsored by Laurel Highlands Outdoor Center with a terrific band, 706 Union. The silent auction had bargains for everyone, including two boats of your choice from Dagger and Wave Sport. The Falls are magnificent during the day but look even better when lit up at night with lights.

We ran out of T-shirts so I might get a limited number of them and bring them down to the Gauley Fest so you can pick one up there.

We hope to continue with an August date and have a tentative date for next year of August 22, 2009. Once again if private boaters get some sort of access for 2009, we hope to make this event more of a competition and increase the prize money. Again we would like to thank the Corps of Engineers, which aids us in achieving the appropriate water level for our event.
It takes a lot of work to put an event together like this. I would like to recognize those that make this event happen.

COMMITTEE
Event Coordinator and AW representative: Barry Adams (that’s me)
Moral Support: Barry Tuscano (Father of this event) Even though Barry T was building a house for his son in California he was there in spirit.
Safety Director: Mike McCarty
Website Coordinator: Matt Muir (Outstanding Website)
Upstream Race: Eric Martin (Wilderness Voyageurs)
Town Liaison and Party Sponsor: Mark McCarty (Laurel Highlands Outdoor Center)
Park Liaison: John Hallas (Park Manger)
PA Organization for Watersheds and Rivers: John Coutts
River Flows: Terry Palmor
Corps of Engineers: Bob Yue
Freestyle Judging – Chuck Morris, Chara Whittemore, Kara Weld, John Weld
Timing: Erin Bethea Coordinator – Chuck Singer – Cliff Wire, Jim Wilhelm and Pam Kinkus,
PA Announcers: Gary McCormick, Sierra O'Brien, Mackenzie Hatcher
Cup Designs: Chuck Stump
Boxes (fine art): Mykl Messer
On-site Entertainment and Official Host: Jeff Snyder
Site Set-up: Carl Erb Jim Wilhelm and Ohiopyle Volunteer Fire Department
On Site Registration: Erin Bethea and a boatload of volunteers
Treasurer, Pre-Registration, Promotion, T-shirts, Entertainment, Sponsors etc: That would also be me. Hey, I could use some help here. I need to get a life?
It is difficult to recognize just one or two persons since everyone did a great job but Matt Muir (RivieraRatt) once again doing the website (note: your webmaster blushes.) and Mike McCarty on Safety worked very hard on this event.

Of course this event would not be possible without volunteers for safety and administration. I know these jobs can be tedious at best but we really need everyone’s help. Basically, this is where I make my plea to pre-register and volunteer specifically for safety. When the park opens the Falls up on some limited basis we hope to make this more of a competition with higher prize money. Of course, we will still allow participants to run the Falls without entering the race, however.

I hope everyone had a good time. Let me know the good and bad regarding this event and any suggestions you may have for future events. I particularly want to hear from anyone that would like to help with this event. It really can be a lot of fun to help out. Just in case you did not know the proceeds from this event go to American Whitewater, Ohiopyle Stewart Volunteer Fire Co and Friends of Ohiopyle

Ohiopyle Adventure Photography is the official photographer of the event and has the concession with the Park. They sell pictures on a disk and prints, which you can do a number of things with. You can contact them at Ohiopyle at the old Dairy Queen on Rt 381 or at 412-558-0274: customerservice@outdooradventurephoto.com. All the pictures are on the website of www.OutdoorAdventurePhoto.com.

Most importantly I would like to thank our major sponsors: Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers (POWR), and American Whitewater. There were numerous other sponsors. Check out the sponsor list on our website. If you would like to be a sponsor of this event, contact me.

See you next year.