The Mulberry Fork Race near Birmingham,
Alabama is part of the Alabama Cup, a spring whitewater race series
organized by the
Birmingham Canoe Club.
April 2016, a senior from Florence High School
qualifies for the 2016 Olympic games in whitewater slalom canoe/kayak during
Olympic team trials on the Shoals Whitewater Course in Florence, Alabama.
A few months later this native Alabamian wins a gold medal in the 2016
Olympic games. Does this sound far-fetched? Not really.
Given the abundance of water and the natural outdoor blessings of North
Alabama, along with the invention of recirculating artificial whitewater
parks, you could very well be reading about it in the Times Daily a few
summers from now.
"The Shoals" area consists of the quad cities:
Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia which are clustered along
the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama. The river's historic shoals,
which gives the area its namesake, were an obstacle for river transportation
before the construction of Wilson Dam and its lock systems in the 1920's.
Buried beneath Wilson Lake, this section of river rapids has been only an
historic footnote since the construction of the dam. It's time to
bring the shoals back to the Shoals Area, in the form of recreational
whitewater.
Paddle sports and river restoration projects are
booming across U.S. cities and towns from Golden, CO in the west to
Charlotte, NC and Garrett County Maryland in the east. The newest
recirculating artificial whitewater course, the
Adventure Sports Center International (asci) (by
The
McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group), is located on a mountain
above the ski slopes of western Maryland's WISP ski resort, a favorite
winter getaway for Washington D.C. residents. The ASCI artificial
course looks like a swiss mountain river, with its mammoth size boulders and
big waves created by hydraulically controlled wave shapers. Large
rafts float alongside Olympic caliber kayakers as they descend down the
challenging whitewater, then rise from a conveyor system back to the start
pool to try it again.
In 2006, the largest re-circulating artificial
whitewater park in the world opened its doors for business in Charlotte,
N.C., near the Catawba River.
The U.S. National Whitewater Center is a
sprawling multi-channel mega park,
USA Canoe and Kayak whitewater training
center, and home to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. It features
world class whitewater along with climbing walls, ropes courses, biking
trails, etc.
Alabama has an abundance of whitewater rivers
particularly in the northern half of the state, but these rivers
require rain to keep them flowing. From late spring through fall
natural river flows subside. During this time southeastern paddlers
descend upon dam controlled rivers like the Ocoee in Tennessee or North
Carolina's Nantahala. The beauty of an artificial course is that with
the flip of a switch you can have year round park and play whitewater.
The Shoals Whitewater Park would draw year round rafters, private boaters,
Olympic Hopefuls and the like, from Huntsville, Birmingham, Nashville,
Memphis and beyond. All of theses cities boast a large and growing
base of paddlers. By shear location, one can imagine a Memphis church
group would plan a whitewater trip to Florence instead of an eight hour
drive to the North Carolina mountains. Florence would become a magnet
and hub for adventure and paddle sports enthusiasts throughout the Tennessee
Valley region. "If you build it, they will come".
Corporate raft racing at the asci course.
(August 2007)
