Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival

Raft Masters rafting teams take home winnings!

This isn’t our first rodeo! Last Saturday, June 22nd Raft Masters’ rafting teams placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the 2013 Raft Rodeo at Centennial Park during the Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival. All three rafting teams are employed by Raft Masters. Teams “Up In Ya” and “Man Bear Pig” have been dominating the whitewater rafting sport for the many years. A total of 13 rafting teams entered the event.

A raft rodeo is a competition between raft teams with at least one paddler and up to as many additional rafters as you can fit in the boat. Teams are typically made up of a paddler and less than 4 additional team members. Teams paddle into the hole or hydrolic and surf the wave, much like surfers do in the ocean, only the wave is stationary. Rafting teams attempt different tricks to dazzle the crowd. The crowd usually responds best to boats that show control in the wave and then violently capsize.

The whitewater Raft Rodeo winnings were as follows:

First Place – Team “Up In Ya” captianed by Dave “BL” Holdinghaus. This team also took both 1st and 2nd place in the Raft Rodeo in Salida, CO last week during the Fibark Whitewater Festival.

Second Place – Team “Man Bear Pig” captianed by Matt “Beaner” Colon and teammate Dylan Riske.

Third Place – Team “Truffle Shuffle” captianed by Justin Englerth and teammates Tyler Hearn and Aaron Formby.

First place winner Dave “BL” Holdinghaus, who has competed in the Raft Rodeo every year since the whitewater park opened in 2010, weighs in on his experience, “All (the Raft Masters teams) really cared about was taking first, second and third (place). We didn’t really care about the order, we just wanted to get all three spots.” Mission accomplished. He used his portion of the winnings to pay off his boat.

The Raft Masters women’s team “Hotties and Hydrolics” had a very good showing this year at the Raft Rodeo, placing 4th in this male dominated sport.