River Festival Draws Record Numbers

Rating ****

Three thousand participants and over twenty five thousand spectators flocked to one of extreme sports biggest events on May 14th and 15th 2010. That fact in its self is fairly common with the way extreme sports are progressing today however, a fact that is not as common is that the extreme sport being held wasn't skate boarding or bmx, it was kayaking. Ordinarily kayaking would not be classified as an extreme sport but when you are hurtling down a stainless steel ramp and are launched into the water far below kayaking turns from an activity to a spectacular, thrilling extreme sport.

The big winner of the weekends events was Tao Berman, a world-renowned paddler for whom this was a first attempt at the world of extreme kayaking. His efforts were rewarded with a thousand dollar cash prize and the admiration of the thousands of on lookers.

This article caught my eye because it illustrates the direction in which sports are heading. The fact that a leisure sport such as kayaking can progress first to white water and now to ramp jumping demonstrates an interesting trend. I am interested to see if this catches on as a major event that may make an appearance on a bigger stage at the XGames or if it will fizzle out like many before it.

Virginia "River Festival Draws Record Numbers"
Rapid Magazine -May 19th 2010-