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< SeptOct 2001
	Hotline
Delivering in the Dark Night rodeos becoming the rage

Throwing new light on the world of freestyle kayaking, event organizers have started following the lead of their European counterparts by staging rodeos in the dead of night. Stealing the limelight from more conventional contests, following is a sampling of four vampire-friendly freestyle events recently held under the stars.

Kern River Festival
Neither rain, nor chill, nor dark of night could keep spectators away from April's Teva Kern River Festival and Rodeo in Kernville, Calif. The draw: decent tunes . . . and 16,000 Watts illuminating the 31 finalists. The season opener for the 2001 NOWR pro rodeo circuit, the festival was also one of the first-ever U.S. rodeos performed under spotlights. While the nocturnal huckfest was far from the sexy, disco-balled rave of France's Rabioux River Festival, the Euro-X-Games-skater vibe/whitewater competition marriage has promise in the States. Rodeo winner Tao Berman, for one, enjoyed the moth-to-flame aspect of the event. "It drew attention to what was going on," he says. "At these events, everyone's all over the place, but with the lights, all of a sudden everybody was condensed together."

"It was Eric Southwick's idea," adds Teva's Adam Druckman, admitting the concept was Euro-inspired. "We wanted to capture the Euro party feel, but also run a rodeo. It seems the gimmicky stuff is what people are liking."

--Ann Beman

St. Louis Rodeo
For the past two years, local rodeo rowdies have lit up a playhole on Minnesota's St. Louis River for a freestyle swap session under the stars. What makes this event so special is the caliber of the lighting. Instead of simply using a couple of rented flood lights, organizers up the wattage, going so far as to hire Dan Monskey of the Minneapolis Institute of Art who last year racked up about $900 in electricity bills for the one-night event. Monskey treats it as an art project, and the results show. The event has generated such fanfare that National Geographic recently caught wind of it and is planning to cover this year's event in August. Monskey now has grander schemes up his sleeve, setting his sights on lighting 48-foot Lover's Leap on the nearby Cascade River for a similar event. "It's definitely a magical setting," says local photographer Doug Nelson. "The whole river gets lit up from bank to bank. The competitors and spectators love it."

--edb

Fat City Showdown
As well as offering a $3,000 purse for competitors, this year's Fat City Showdown on Steamboat Springs, Colo.'s Yampa River also offered something else alluring to participants: finals held under a suspended disco ball and Routt County full moon. Though the event started at 2 p.m., the final round didn’t get started until 9 p.m. under the Big Dipper. Though multi-end dipper Dan Gavere had the most entertaining ride with a waterproof headlight strapped to his helmet--with the result looking like a twirling Fourth of July sparkler--Clay Wright captured top nocturnal honors with an endless procession of cartwheels in his customized Amp, the "Amputee." "We just wanted to do something different," says Jerry Baxter of Fat Eddy's Threadworks, which organized the event. "We weren't aware that anyone else was doing the same thing. Next year we plan to go even bigger with the light show."

--edb

Boise County Throwdown
With more than 300 spectators and 40 competitors, night owls in Boise, Idaho, held their second annual freestyle event June 8 under a canopy of darkness at Gutter Rapid on the Main Payette. The event featured a wave and hole less than 10 yards apart from one another, with four anonymous judges trying to narrow down the field as all 40 contestants converged on the playspots at the same time. Adding to the confusion was a DJ spinning tunes under flood lights, a suspended disco ball and strobe lights. After 45 minutes of mayhem, the judges whittled down the field to 10 competitors. Those left again competed at the same time to get narrowed down to three finalists, with the crowd deciding the ultimate winner. Winding up on the barely visible podium was Washington's Rob Turner, who--at midnight--won a custom-made WWF-style wrestling belt, complete with his name engraved on the buckle. "It was kind of a big party scene," says organizer Sam Goff. "We had to make sure the locals knew what was going on beforehand."

--edb