Green River Rodeo: Wyoming

The Green River Rodeo is a fairly new event, with this being the second year of their annual event. The whole place has a small town feel, with great hospitality, especially towards all of the kayakers. It is a fun little whitewater park with a gorgeous park build around it.

We started the day off with a great pancake breakfast followed by some volunteer clean up around the park. We then moved right into the rodeo, with cadets, and juniors going first. It was cool seeing all the youth out in the water competing, making me realize that the sport of freestyle kayaking is healthy and growing. The Kellogg family alone had at least 4 of their kids competing in the Jr. Mens’ and cadets classes.

We braked for a quick pizza lunch and an awesome duck collecting game where the fire department throws in a whole bunch of rubber ducks into the rapids and the kayakers have to go a collect them. The person with the most ducks wins. It is a fun little game and it gives the competitors time to fool around instead of being serious.

The Pro Men’s class followed after the lunch break. It was a tight competition between Stephen Wright, Dane Jackson and myself. The play hole was fast and flushy and forced you to be on your game.  It came down to the wire with some close rides. I ended up in Second with 810 points just behind Stephen with 830.

After it was all said and done we had an amazing pulled pork dinner and awards ceremonies.

Now we are off to Colorado for some more events and good times.

Nick Troutman