After A Half Century, Bigfork Whitewater Festival Keeps Paddling
Even amid changing trends, changing gear, and changing people, in all the years the festival has stayed afloat, the Swan River and its storied mile of whitewater has remained the centerpiece of it all
By Mike Kordenbrock
As a local paddler born and raised in Bigfork, Dave Meyers thinks it’s “pretty sweet” to play a role in keeping the tradition of the Bigfork Whitewater Festival alive.
Kayakers, rafters, paddleboarders and assorted river rat subspecies will be descending on the Flathead this week as part of the annual event, which past organizers have characterized as a way of kicking off summer for the valley.
Revolving around a stretch of the Swan River that runs through Bigfork, dubbed “the wild mile” for its Class IV whitewater rapids, the festival is a benefit for the Montana Kayak Academy and features slalom kayak and canoe competitions, a stand-up paddleboard flat water race, raft races, and at least one dance party.
This year’s festival is being billed as the 50th annual. There’s no dispute that the festival has been going on in some form or another for decades, and Meyers said a plaque with which he’s been entrusted lists the very first winner, Shaun McAdams, in 1975. He was just 17 at the time, and had started kayaking somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10.
McAdams, whose daughter Darby is a world-class kayaker in her own right and has won the wild mile race before, recalled that the 1975 race came together through “smoke signals,” transmitted by way of rotary phones and word of mouth passed between friends and acquaintances in Montana’s small kayaking community. He remembers Tom Moe and Cliff Persons as the organizers. McAdams says that there were little more than a dozen kayakers in the state at the time, and he came to know many of them through his father, Lynn, an accomplished kayaker who made fiberglass kayaks in his Missoula garage.
“Everybody that kayaked usually paddled one of his boats, because that was the only way to get a hold of them,” Shaun said.
The first race brought in about a dozen people, and there was no festival, and no prize money. There were no slalom events, or other types of watercraft involved. Just kayaks going straight down the river to see who could be the fastest from top to bottom.
Digitized newspaper archives don’t reflect much attention being paid to that first year, although next year’s race merited four photos and an extended caption in the June 21, 1976 edition of the Daily Inter Lake, beneath the headline, “Easing (?) down the river.” The photo spread references “the 1st Annual whitewater kayak race,” which took place on the Swan River in Bigfork.
The photos show Jim Anderson, that year’s first place finisher, navigating a roiling stretch of river, with the last frame showing just the back of his helmet and his right paddle blade amid the water’s swarming foam. David Burke, who took the photos, wrote in his extended caption that “Whitewater kayaking definitely isn’t a sport for those persons with hydrophobia, as demonstrated by Jim Anderson.”
The caption lists a first place prize of $60 and a second place prize of $30 (won by Shawn “Whitewater” McAdams), with the event sponsored by the Mountain Lake Tavern.
The following year, a brief in the Missoulian reported 11 participants in the race. With McAdams notching another second place finish.
By 1980, the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce had agreed to sponsor a “Whitewater Weekend” to coincide with the annual race. The Missoulian that year referenced the “mad mile” to describe the stretch of river running from the Pacific Power and Light Co. Dam above Bigfork into town.
Kelly Mull-White, who took over the festival from 1991 through 1997, said that organizing it was a sort of ski season endeavor, given that you had to have your act together in the fall in order to ensure it could happen the following spring.
The first year she was involved, she guessed there were maybe 20 people who participated, but she saw an opportunity to connect the race into a competitive circuit, which amplified the event’s sponsorship opportunities, and helped drum up significant interest. Word got out, and the race “blew up” in 1996, when she estimates roughly 200 paddlers showed up.
“We were all camped out down at the pumphouse, and there was a lot of good support from Bigfork, but I think it was a lot for Bigfork,” she said, adding that there started to be some local resistance to the whole affair.
In the late 90s, Mull-White, who now lives in Columbia Falls, said that over the course of one summer she lost five friends in paddling accidents. The extreme sport lost its appeal to her, and she sold her boat. “I decided that was not how I wanted to go,” she said.
The modern iteration of the festival includes a “Flower Float” on Flathead Lake, which Meyers said is a way of bringing the tight-knit community together before the start of the weekend to remember why they’re there, and to pay tribute to those who are no longer with them.
The Montana Kayak Academy, where Meyers is the executive director, took the festival over about five years ago. He said that in the early 2000s, “rodeo” or freestyle kayaking started to grow in popularity, and extreme racing faded a bit, before seeing a resurgence in the 2010s. Now, Meyers notes that there’s a high caliber group of younger athletes that are pushing the sport to its limits. He’s not sure what exactly to attribute it to, but guesses that social media could have played a part in giving the sport — which he said has historically not been in the public’s eye as much as other extreme sports — a little more publicity.
“I just feel like every year, there’s just more and more good kayakers, and it’s just kind of a growing sport,” Meyers said.
Even amid changing trends, changing gear (Meyers said he’s heard tales of duct-taped wool jackets being used on the water), and changing people, in all the years the festival has stayed afloat, the Swan River and its storied mile of whitewater has remained the centerpiece of it all.
Meyers called it “just a really classic section of whitewater,” which at the right flows can amount to a lot of fun (depending on how you define “fun”) and draws out some high-quality boaters.
“The venue itself kind of creates the event,” Meyers said. “It’s one of the only places that you have really great viewing on a really big rapid. Most kayaking events are kind of off the beaten path, and hard to see. So, the spectator aspect is actually one of the best things about the event, because there can be 100-plus people rooting on the nature trail.”
It’s not often that a whitewater kayaker gets that kind of audible, or even visible, solidarity, which is boosted by an announcer calling the play-by-play paddling action.
The conditions this year are shaping up to be a bit of a lower-flow course. That cuts both ways. The conditions might not be ideal for the spicier tastes of some paddlers, but Meyers said it tends to encourage more people to compete, and it also promises a longer season for the locals. Typically, late May is peak run-off season, but this spring’s cold weather and snow in the high country is preserving the snow melt.
McAdams, who lives in Missoula, and plans on attending this weekend, said that it’s his belief that people’s devotion to kayaking comes down to the enjoyment that some people take from being on the water.
“You can keep it real simple, and relaxing, or you can take it to any level you want,” he said.
The 50th Annual Bigfork Whitewater Festival kicks off this Friday, May 23, with the Flower Float and boater orientation. Races and other competitions kick off Saturday morning, and the festivities conclude on Sunday with an awards ceremony at The Garden Bar. For more information, including a schedule of events, go to bigforkwhitewaterfestival.com.