On the river: Holy hole!

Charles Agar
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
April 30, 2008

Print Email

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Glenwood Springs has sprouted a hole — the valley’s first man-made whitewater play park — and on Friday, I had a chance to plunge in.

I was psyched to find the group of pickups and well-used cars — topped with boats, plastered with stickers and hung with colorful paddling gear — lined up along the Colorado River near the big-box shopping in West Glenwood.

I parked and ran to the edge of the river to spot a group of rodeo kids flipping and flopping in a spot where once there was just flat water.

I quickly suited up.

So far this year, I’ve only been in my boat once, throwing down a few rolls in a recent pool session at the Aspen Recreation Center, so everything about Friday’s whitewater baptism was a shock.

My kayak gear felt tight — I chalk it up to gear shrink instead of my carbo-heavy diet — and the water was frigid on my hands.

I put in just above the big, man-made play hole on river left, and thought I’d just drop in and paddle through the circulating trough.

The hole had other ideas, though.

I rode up the downriver crest of the hole where my boat paused briefly before being sucked backward into the beast.

I’m more of a straight-forward front surfer — facing the boat upstream and riding a standing wave — but the Glenwood hole gave me an instant lesson in going sideways, backward and spinning.

The tail of my boat submerged and the hole swallowed me in one gulp, giving me the gift of my first combat roll of the season. (It took two tries.)

I rolled up fully baptized into 2008 among a handful of other smiling paddlers.

The new man-made whitewater park also has a boat chute on river right where passing rafts can get by. But as the water is rising, the chute has formed a big, friendly wave in the form of a V.

After a few confidence-building front-surfs on the boat chute, I let the hole have its way with me a few more times before calling it quits. (My hands were frozen into rigid claws.)

I drove away tired and happy about this new year-round playground — a far better reason for a run downvalley than the soulless void of big-box shopping.