As most board viewers know, Whitewater Ontario is hosting the national Slalom Kayak Championships at the Gull next week. Playboaters have asked how this will effect them and their access to the river. The short answer is we will try and share the river.

Originally it was anticipated water levels may be limited due to low precipitation in winter and WO arranged for releases to support the event (paid by racer fees). As it turns out, due to heavy rain, water levels are up and instead of getting logs removed to increase flow, we will have to add logs to reduce flow - we need a predictable and consistent level for racing, and similar for training.

Commencing Monday July 26 thru sun Aug 1 there will be a managed release at 18 cms (about 8.3 on the gauge) from 8am-4pm daily except wednesday. After 4pm flows will revert to whatever the Trent Severn system needs - but discussion with Parks Canada indicate levels will probably go up.

So evening flows will be high and good. Some slalom racers may be on river, especially national team folks that like the bigger water, but we will try and make the river fully available to playboaters.

For training purposes we are hanging gates this weekend and they will remain in place all week through Aug 1st. We will move them to side around earls to enable freestyle in evenings. You might even want to try catching a few gates as you run down the river!

We are asking the slalom racers to respect play boaters and share the river and I would like to request the same from the playboaters.

Thanks for your cooperation, and hopefully you'll be out there for the WO rodeo and Boatercross event Sunday 25th

Steve Pomeroy
Race Director
Nationals 2010