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< Jan/Feb 2001
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Money Talks A look at how much cash could've been won kayaking by Joe Glickman

Who says there's no cash in kayaking? If an intrepid young paddler had competed--and won--every cash-giving event in 2000, be it an extreme race for NBC or a locally sponsored rodeo, here's the bacon he or she might have brought home. Following is a list of events said paddler would've had to compete in, before hopping in a Lear jet--or beat-up Volkswagen--and high-tailing it to the next one. The potential winnings might not be enough to lure Tiger Woods--and they might not buy caviar for the shuttle driver--but it beats subsisting on riverside Ramen.

WHITEWATER WEALTH

Immersion Research Series April 8-22
Total Purse $12,000 Potential Winnings $3,500
Three events (Rock Island, Nolichucky, and Watauga), with first-place prizes of $1,500, $1,500 and $500—enough to repair bow dings from swapping in the low water.

Kern Festival April 14-16
Total Purse $2,000 Potential Winnings $650
Luckily, men's winner Rusty Sage was too young to blow his first-place winnings in the nearby LA nightclubs.

Teva Oregon Cup May 2-7
Total Purse $5,000 Potential Winnings $2,650
Five events (Maupin Daze, Pacific City Surf Off, Canyon Creek Extreme Race, Sunset Falls Rodeo and Bob's Hole), with $350 for the winner of each event and $1000 for the overall champion ($500 for overall women’s champ. ("That’ll almost cover gas money"–Eric Southwick)

Eddie Bauer Slalom Series May 20-June 4
Total Purse $53,000 Potential Winnings $10,200
Since we're being hypothetical, a well-rounded paddler could've walked home with $10,200 from the three events in Colorado's Eddie Bauer Slalom Series. Doing so, however, would've meant winning every category at every race (K-1, C-1 and splitting the C-2 purse). And it's doubtful Mr. Hypothetical would've had much fun with the winnings—anyone like that probably doesn’t have much of a social life.

Coosa Rodeo May 26-28
Total Purse $500 Potential Winnings $250
Helping kick off the freestyle season, Alabama's Coosa Rodeo dished up southern hospitality with some of the year's first greenbacks.

Vail Dash for Cash May 27-28
Total Purse $625 Potential Winnings $150
Testing shuttle mettle as well as downriver prowess, this event had competitors running up Gore Creek before racing down it.

Montana Whitewater Champs May 13-14
Total Purse $1,200 Potential Winnings $400
The Alberton Gorge outside of Missoula, Mont., didn’t offer huge money in its first year, but it did offer huge fun, with competitors howling at the moon at the Crystal Springs Resort until the wee hours of the night.

Dickerson Whitewater Champs June 6
Total Purse $10,000 Potential Winnings $4,100
With its first cash purse ever, the Dickerson Whitewater Championships drew slalom racers from seven countries. If someone could've won men's K-1 and C-1, he'd have earned more than four grand.

Yampa River Festival June 10
Total Purse $2,000 Potential Winnings $500
To the chagrin of some festival organizers, this year's Yampa River Festival offered a cash purse, drawing pro competitors from the waterless NOWR event at Union Park the same weekend.

FIBark June 15-18
Total Purse $3,000 Potential Winnings $1,100
With a newly revamped playhole, Salida, Colo.'s FIBark also offered a newly revamped purse. If you were strong enough to win both Pro Men’s freestyle and downriver race, you could have walked away with over a thousand bucks—most of which would've been blown on drinks that night at The Vick.

Animas River Days June 23-25
Total Purse $2,000 Potential Winnings $750
Low water didn't mean low funds, with the winner of the Freestyle Through a Rapid event picking up a hefty purse for his or her efforts.

Gorge Games July 8-15
Total Purse $20,000 Potential Winnings $6,000
With the $10,000 rodeo purse re-allocated to the head-to-head downriver, an adrenaline junkie could've won $3K in both the head-to-head and extreme race, enough for a lifetime's gift certificate to Starbucks and a bottle of Ben-Gay.

Gore Canyon Race Aug. 19
Total Purse $10,000 Potential Winnings $1,083
Assuming you could win the raft race and pick up $2,000 (divided by six, of course), and then win the $750 Downriver kayak prize, you could've struck paydirt paddling the Colorado.

Outdoorplay.com Rodeo Series May 20, Aug. 19, 26
Total Purse $22,500 Potential Winnings $7,500--$2,900 (C-1 and OC1)
Outdoorplay coughed up some clams for kayaking. Three events (Ocoee, Tenn.; South Bend, Ind.; and Wausau, Wis.), with $1,500 earmarked for each winner and $3,000 overall. If you won all the C-1 and OC-1 events as well, you could've added another $2,900 to the tally, all of which you could have easily spent visiting the event sponsor's Web site.

Export A Whitewater Challenge Oct. 7,8
Total Purse $10,000 (CN) Potential Winnings $2,500(CN)
The Export A offered an Ottawa-sized purse—and neutralizing the gender gap, it dolled out equal winnings for men and women. But the earnings were in Canadian, meaning winners barely escaped with gas money to get back across the border.

Zambezi Big Water Invitational Oct. 23-27
Total Purse $1,500 Potential Winnings $1,000
Though you would've have spent more than your winnings on airfare and malaria pills, the first annual Zambezi Big Water Invitational promises an even larger purse next year. The first-place overall prize is $1,000, and second is nine cents, because “second ain’t worth a dime.”

TOTAL: Total Purse $155,325 Potential Winnings $46,333

FLATWATER FINANCES

Trying to make money in the world of flatwater paddling is like trying to take a bone away from an ornery Doberman. As four-time Olympic medallist Greg Barton says, "You can count on one hand the races where it's possible to win more than your expenses of getting there." Naturally, these few races attract a deep field of talent. If, like Barton, you're capable of winning canoe and kayak marathons, there is bacon to be had. But for most mortals, trying to make a living from your winnings is highly hazardous to your fiscal health.

Molokai World Surf Ski Championships
Total Purse $10,000 Potential Winnings $1,000
When Starbucks became the sponsor of this venerable championship race a few years ago, it was hoped that some serious cash would be handed out to the ocean paddlers battling across the volatile channel separating Molokai and Oahu. The fat purse never materialized, and now that Starbucks is no longer aboard the pickin's are even slimmer.Given the cost of getting to Molokai, hiring an escort boat, and more, a win here will buy you a couple of double mocha lattes.

Heineken Surf Ski Challenge
Total Purse $20,000 Potential Winnings $4,500
Given the cost of flying to the gorgeous island paradise of Tahiti, entering this race is a bit of an extravagance for those living outside French Polynesia. If you have the fastest cumulative time in this tough two-day surf ski stage race, you'll cover your expenses with enough left over to buy a reproduction by one-time resident Paul Gaugin. But with the best post-race party in the paddling world (note the sponsor), even the losers go home happy.

Ocean Sport Festival
Total Purse $15,000 Potential Winnings $4,000
Now the most lucrative paddling event Down Under, this 14K surf ski race in Sydney draws all the top paddlers. So many, in fact, that Dean Gardiner, one of the event organizers and a seven-time winner of the World Surf Ski Championship, isn't the favorite to win the $4,000 (more or less) offered for first.

The Umsinduzi Marathon
Total Purse $13,000 Potential Winnings $3,000
Known as "The Duzi," this punishing three-day, 110-mile race on the Umsinduzi River in South Africa runs through The Valley of the Thousand Hills. Last year nearly 1,000 paddlers braved the unpredictable boat-breaking rapids and tortuous portages through the mountains and scorching heat. Win the race and you're on your way to becoming a legend in this marathon-mad country. Win the $1,000 first prize and you should have enough to cover the cost of replacing your thrashed boat.

Triple Crown of Canoeing
Total Purse $50,000 Potential Winnings $7,500
These three canoe marathons--The General Clinton in New York, the Classique in Quebec, and the Ausable race in Michigan--are the most solvent events in the single blade world. The Michigan race, which the winning team takes 15 or more hours to finish, bills itself as North America's richest canoe race with over $50,000 in cash and prizes. Finish in the top 40 and you're still guaranteed a few bucks. Of course, unless your name is Serge Corbin, you'll be racing for second. While these are called "pro" races, one top competitor said that if he divided his total annual winnings by his training time, he'd be better off mowing lawns.

World Sea Kayak Championships
Total Purse $100,000 Potential Winnings $15,000
Although this event wasn't held in 2000, 1999's 33-mile race across Quebec's St. Lawrence River offered the richest purse in paddling history. And it came down to two brothers, Oscar and Herman Chalupsky, battling it out like little kids for an allowance, with Herman besting his older brother by 13 seconds.

Total: Total Purse $208,000 Potential Winnings $35,000