Quito, Ecuador – In the playful world of whitewater rafting, “competition” typically amounts to Super Soakers vs. bail buckets in an effort to see who can make the biggest splash.
This week in Ecuador, however, the men and women of the Colorado-based national champion U.S. Whitewater Rafting teams will attempt to make waves on an international scale by becoming the first American teams to win the International Rafting Federation (IRF) World Championships of Whitewater Rafting.
While whitewater rafting may never qualify as an Olympic competition, the IRF has been holding world championship events around the globe since 1999. Nearly 50 men’s and women’s teams from as far as Japan, Turkey and South Africa are gathering this week along the banks of the Quijos River in central Ecuador for the semi-annual event scheduled Friday through Sunday.
Among them are the Colorado teams Behind the 8 Ball and Timberline Women, both of which were crowned national champions a year ago and successfully defended their respective titles in sprint, slalom and downriver rafting competition at the U.S. Whitewater Cup held on the Sho- shone and Gore Canyon sections of the Colorado River in late August. Now they are putting their titles up against the world’s best.
“We’ve been training for this race for four years,” team captain Mike Reid of Vail said. “We do a big international race every year, and every year we learn a little more and tweak our program. It’s taken us four years to get to the point we are now, but every time out we get a little better and a little smoother.”
This isn’t the first trip to the world championships for either team. Behind the 8 Ball – composed of Reid, Chris “Mongo” Reeder, Todd Toledo, Ollie Dose and Ben Bungartz, all from the Vail Valley – placed fourth in the most recent world championship competition in the Czech Republic. With a rotating crew anchored by team captain Katherine “Bugs” Bugby, the Timberline Women – now including Lisa Sackville, Cristin Zimmer, Dawn Vogeler, Lisa Reeder and Jody Swoboda – finished as high as second in 1999.
“We know we’re going to have tough competition in Ecuador, but we’ve been training hard for this, even competing against the men’s team,” Bugby said.
Behind the 8 Ball has enlisted the support of former U.S. Ski Team trainer Topper Hagerman of the Vail-based Howard Head Sports Medicine Clinic. In winter months, the team comprised of current and former commercial rafting guides works out five days a week, putting in three days a week on the river beginning in June and ending last week. All of the time is volunteered.
“Most of the top teams are essentially pros,” said Reid, 35. “Some are military-based rafting teams, and some are Olympic development kayak team members that are selected to be on the raft team for the worlds. Compared to most of the teams out there, we’re the old men.”
