Dominion River Rock

One day, we received the news that an awesome river festival would be held in the place that my family used to live in, Richmond Virginia! It is known as Dominion River Rock, and has all sorts of sports, from rock climbing and kayaking, to slacklining and even dog jumping, which was really cool to see! As soon as we heard, we quickly packed, and met up with some old friends near where my family used to live, which brought back countless warm and fuzzy memories. Dominion River Rock happens every year on the James River, a river with many fun places and playspots. If you decide to come here, bring a playboat! You don’t want to miss the great opportunities!

Before the competition, my sister and I took time to roam around the festival. What really caught our eyes was the slacklining, which was basically a two inch wide piece of webbing in which athletes did all sorts of flips, turns, and tricks galore! My sister and I could barely get across the guest line, but the competitors were throwing backflips and landing on their stomachs and backs while on the line! Holy Cow!

The first event was boatercross, which was first divided into time trials, and then a full on boatercross. The coarse had two gates that were in the coarse, which made the boatercross even more fun!

The next event that I participated in was the freestyle event. The event was a blast and there was very close competition to cap it off. Unfortunately, since this was a grassroots event, I did not understand that it had different rules than those of the ICF, and missed the “appeal to the crowd” part. Silly me! My sister also did very well in the women’s class, throwing her boat in all directions, whether it was up, down, sideways, or diagonal! Great job Julia!!!

All in all, the event was super fun, the stoke was high, and the festival was glowing with energy!

– Ethan Frangenberg