VAIL — In its mid-1990s heyday, the Colorado River’s Big Sur wave drew crowds of kayakers who lined the banks with grills, boom-boxes and spotlights — all the accoutrements required to keep a party raging as long as the famous wave stood tall.
Problem was, no one seemed to know for sure when the wave would surface. Even at its best, the wave was unreliable.
Until recently, the same could be said for the man-made Vail Whitewater Park on Gore Creek. Although events like last weekend’s Teva Mountain Games (TMG)served as the new congregating point for the paddling party in Colorado, the wave-hole feature built in 2002 to host the crowd rarely lived up to expectations.
“A lot of paddlers have come to the Teva Games because it’s the Games and because of the TV coverage and cash on the line, but for the last five years I’ve always heard what a shame it is that the hole is the worst on tour,” said Clay Wright, a professional kayaker from Tennessee who oversees TMG freestyle events. “Athletes complain a lot. But I don’t think you’re going to hear much this year. The hole was great.”
The difference?
The Town of Vail installed a computerized system of inflatable bladders and underwater panels on the river floor last fall. The bladders can be inflated or deflated to move the panels and channel the river to create the optimal wave on any given day, no matter the river flow.
“It’s sick,” Wright said. “You watch a couple paddlers and if the hole is too sticky, you back it off a little bit. When they start flushing out, you set it somewhere in between. If they hit bottom, you make it deeper. If it’s too narrow, you can make it wider. You can always make a really good hole here now, and that’s awesome.”
Of course, such state-of-the- art technology comes at a cost. Vail had already spent more than $250,000 building and improving the park during the past several years. The new system upped the bill by $376,000, arguably qualifying it as the single most-expensive wave in the state.
The hefty price tag was called into question last week when a kink in the system caused a temporary malfunction on the brink of its competition debut, leaving TMG organizers worried they would have to return to the sand bags, jersey barriers and plywood used to channel the river for contests in years past.
“Lots of people are trying lots of different things to figure out how to affect the water to make a good hole, and it’s been really challenging,” Wright said.
