Gauleyfest '07 rocks Summersville!

September 18, 2007

By Stephen Wright

Gauleyfest came and went yet again with the opportunity to paddle and
party with thousands of our closest friends in Summersville, WV. With one
of the best whitewater rivers in the world, hundreds of vendor booths, good
food, and more fun than you could ask for, this is THE premiere whitewater
festival on the planet. Gauleyfest is put-on by American Whitewater as a
fundraiser, and gift to paddlers who attend.

This year, Jackson Kayak had our "usual" giant RV booth with BBQ, free
beer, and TONS of giveaways. Every half-hour EJ and other team paddlers
would climb up on the roof of the RV to throw out visors, t-shirts, otter
boxes, Happy Seats, DVD’s and more to throngs of screaming paddlers vying
for free stuff. We raffled-off 2 JK boats of choice. And for the first
time, we had a kid’s scavenger-hunt which then lead to a kid’s boat and
paddle raffle. Kids were everywhere looking for one Clay or Jason, or other
team Jkers who gave them the next clue to find. SWEET!

It was great to get on the Gauley every day again this weekend with lots
of friends. Colin Kemp organized the World Kayak "am I ready for the
Gauley?" clinics on Saturday that showed 15 lucky Gauley first-timers down
the mighty river–who else gets to claim that there first run on the Gauley
was lead by Jay, Clay, EJ, Nick, or Emily? I was happy to get to lead 6 of
my former Keener students down the hardest lines on the Upper Gauley. Enjoy
the photos from early in the night at the festival–crowds were much larger
later in the night.

Live from Summersville, WV,
Stephen Wright