Whitewater Parks Revitalize Local Economies

Todd Baker goes airborn in Reno

Golden first opened its park in 1998, with a quarter mile of features on Clear Creek, which runs through town. They added another quarter mile a few years ago and not a single feature—out of 11 drops—could be called world class. Still, the change that Golden undergoes during whitewater season is “astounding,” says public works director Dan Hartman. Each summer afternoon the park is filled with boaters, and when the water warms in July and August the park fills with tubers and swimmers. In a 1998 study commissioned by the city, an economics firm found that the park nets $1-2 million for local businesses annually. Now, says Hartman, the park’s traffic is probably double what it was in 1998, as is the park’s economic benefit, which is “clearly greater than we ever would have anticipated.”

Which is exactly Shimoda’s point. Boaters around Colorado bemoan Golden’s lack of even one outstanding play feature, but, for the most part, the city doesn’t care. Last year area paddlers thought they’d finally complained long enough when the city revamped one of the parks’ play spots. But the city wasn’t trying to please kayakers, it was trying to please the tourists who stroll Washington Street—Golden’s main drag. The drop, Golden decided, didn’t do the city any good if spectators didn’t stop and watch the kayakers, wander over to buy ice cream or coffee, and then linger a little longer on the bridge above the river.

Paddlers saw the move as a nice gesture. But, says Hartman, the move was purely an economic benefit for the town. Boaters, he says, “got the residual benefit.”

Different Kind of Holes When lots in Charlotte’s 2,300-home “Whitewater” development first went on the market, the median price of a home was about $150,000, says Lance Kinerk, director of sales and marketing at the USNWC. Now the median is $400,000.

“We truly believe that having many recreational amenities is good for both the consumer and for us as businesspeople,” says Karen Myers, president of Wisp Resort. Golf courses have long helped to propel real estate prices. Anecdotally, it looks as if whitewater parks might do the same—in one period last year, Wisp Resort customers chose lots near the ASCI as often they did near the golf course.

The 550-acre ASCI, which also includes hiking trails and climbing facilities, plays home to the country’s newest whitewater park, and undoubtedly the most state-of-the-art—it’s on the top of a mountain where no river existed previously. Four 535-horsepower pumps pull water from a kidney-shaped snowmaking reservoir and blast it horizontally through four outlets, creating a stream out of the rocks. One of the pumps is adjustable, and can fine-tune the flow—meaning first-time rafters can enjoy friendly Class II riffles in the morning, then hardcore playboaters can shred steep, glassy waves in the afternoon. A 240-foot conveyor belt delivers paddlers, in their boats, back to the top.

The ASCI whitewater park’s opening drew 10,000 people to the site over Memorial Day weekend—and about 250 rafters each day—with a grand opening slated for July. This translates into more hotel stays and food business for Wisp, which contributes $180,000 a year to the park’s budget, during a time when business at the ski resort is typically slow or nonexistent. “We’re where the action is in the winter, and if there’s something happening in the summer, we wanted to make it happen,” Myers said.

Making it Happen
In 1994—11 years before the hordes started to descend on the Truckee River for four days each May—a group of local kayakers decided wanted to install a temporary slalom course in the river, says local boater and dogged park proponent Jim Litchfield.

But the idea languished, even as boaters’ imaginations began to run wild with possibilities. “It takes so much time to get out of the regulatory environment, says Litchfield. “But I was just too stubborn to let it go.” In 1999 the Nevada Commission on Tourism threw their support behind the project and the scope increased significantly. The problem then became that the park was too good of an idea--at least for politicians used to fighting and dealing to get their way.

“One of the problems of the project was that everybody loved it,” says Litchfield. So the thinking in government offices went something like, “Everybody loves the park, someone else will take care of it.”

The lesson: Keep fighting.

Reno Whitewater Festival Crowd

“Whitewater parks are just what our sport needs,” says Litchfield. “Paddlesports in general is a fringe sport. I’m hoping that these whitewater parks sort of change that.”

More paddlers, after all, means more participants, more exposure, and, ultimately, more profit.

For more information about how whitewater parks get built, visit Whitewater Park’s International’s www.whitewaterparks.com and Recreation Engineering and Planning’s www.wwparks.com.