I completely agree and would like to see a more varied showing of boats and gear. It would be really neat if one could demo boats from several companies in the town park.

 

I thought this years fibark was mediocre at best. being forced to camp 4 miles from the festival prompted me and every single person I knew there to keep there money in there pockets- why buy food and beer there when you can get it cheaper elsewhere ? and the parking ?? total crap. speaking of crap -anybody use the toilet at the camp spot ? didn't think so...covered in it. and with everybody having to drive over in the morning and drive back at night it felt like Denver rush hour just getting around town. the number of vendors could always go up- but the number of local yahoos and party drinkers that have never even been in a raft or kayak or playboat needs to seriously go down. its a whitewater festival for whitewater enthusiast not October Fest. still got some great runs in with some great boaters, that made it worth the trip. but salida and whoever is in charge of the festival screwed up. bad.

 

the number of local yahoos and party drinkers that have never even been in a raft or kayak or playboat needs to seriously go down. its a whitewater festival for whitewater enthusiast not October Fest

lol, gear down there big shifter. the local non-boaters have just as much right to be at the festival in their town as you have the right to visit it

 

visiting is one thing- dumping your money into it for three days is another. treating the boaters like they're a nuisance, when they're the reason for the festival is a bad idea.

 

Wow....you guys completely high jack my thread and made this a personal. I think the event is good with all facids, ie left bank partiers, boaters, local Salida folks just there for the beer and concerts....I like it all, and it makes the event what it is, but I was curious why more industry booths dont participate! Kayak, rafting and SUP vendors! Where are they and why?

 

local Salida folks just there for the beer and concerts....

I am wondering why you think the crowd that was there for the beer and music was Salida locals? In my experience the locals are generally the ones taking part in all the events (outside the pro freestyle) and doing all the volunteer work, and the people from the Front Range and even out of state are the one's getting shit faced and imo ruining the scene.

I give the organizers props for trying something a little different this year. Hopefully they can take the criticism with stride and try to get back more to the roots of the "First in Boating the Arkansas" festival. Many people put in lots of time and effort to make the fest go as smooth as possible. Thanks.

Oh, I totally agree about more river related booths. A little less funnel cake and a little more kayak, raft and sup would go a long way.

 

and perhaps I should clarify...... front range boaters don't have a negative impact on the festival, I think it's the crowd that travels around to music festivals and parties like their 18. As a general rule they don't seem to respect the community they are visiting or the other people trying to enjoy the environment. I think Fibark should only have live music going between river events or after they have concluded for the day.

 

FIBArk was a mess this year. It's no longer about boating. They ran expert rodeo finals during the SUP race and we sat in the eddy for an hour and 45 minutes for 3 rides. I was a little annoyed by that until they ran the junior men's and women's finals during the Hooligan race and realized we had it easy waiting for SUPers. The juniors are paddling at an extremely high level and it's pretty rough for them to compete between Hooligan heats. I guess it's not the early 2000's anymore when the freestyle was the main event at FIBArk.

 

Yeah, that was a mess. The comps ended up 2? hours behind schedule and then the computers used for scoring the freestyle events failed. Need paper scoring sheets for backup. Still, the paddling was great. The top juniors were going huge and the Men's pro finals was incredibly competitive. Plenty of room for improvement but I still had a great time.

 

It would be really nice if there was onsite camping like the river fests back east like Cheat and Gauley Fest. I doubt if there is room for that so how about finding a big field somewhere, setting up a bandstand, beer garden, vendors. It doesn't mean moving everything from downtown (which is attended by the locals and tourist). Just setting up a boater specific camping and party site.

 

The only good thing about the Juniors competing during the Hooligan Race was the huge crowd they had. Hunter destroyed it. Too bad most of the crowed left before the pro men. I know most people aren't very interested in watching freestyle kayaking, but all five that were in the finals had great rides. It's amazing how well Dustin competes against those guys when he isn't traveling around paddling as much as them.

The computer scoring was good in theory. I didn't realize it went down. That would explain why I watched it update the expert finals standings after the last ride then find out later the places weren't the same.

 

You want a paddle event without all of the hype and non boating stuff, then go to Baileyfest!

 

It's too bad FIBark is falling apart. I'll agree with lmeyers about chaffee county locals being pretty melow and taking ownership of their community far more than most other places.

 

Sorry....I ment Salida locals not as a negitive but I probably should have said the people their for the great small town carnival/festival feel.

Don't get me wrong, I love the festival! I think they did a great job this year and I appreciate all the volunteers too. Actually enjoyed the fact that when my family got bored of watching the freestyle finals my family could walk over and enjoy the rides, music and funnel cake instead of being held hostage by daddies hunger for freestyle kayaking ha ha.

So, no offense to my comment "Salida Locals" it was more directed to the non-boating community that enjoyss the festival just as much as the rest of us boaters.

But I'm really looking for why aren't their more vendors ANYONE KNOW???

 

Fibark has definitely lost alot of its boating and river fun appeal to me thru the years. I used to come for years with a group of paddlers but found it much more a carnival than a spirited competition. I have gone to the Gunnison River Festival past 3years and found it to be much more "natural" and much less "commercialized".

 

Oh hell....I give up. Should have named this thread "Give me your personal opinion on FIBark failure or success".

All I wanted to know is if anyone knew why there wasn't more industry booths.

Oh well...the thread is yours critics.

 

FibArk Restructured

A lot of the reasoning behind the change in vibe this year at FibArk was because of the last two years, more specifically last year. It spun out of control last year. Locals were pissed to see people camping on Union Pacific property on the other side of the river. There were issues upstream with out of control campers doing a wide variety of things better left in the bedroom and doing them in public at all hours. The level of drunkenness up and down the river became apparent by 9pm each night. People partying too loudly, a real live prostitute plying her wares near the F Street bridge was another oddity. Combine that with heavy public consumption of pot and fights (though it always seems to be the locals involved in the fighting), you ended up with a pissed off local population.

The result was a new FibArk board with a new agenda that started with "How do we dial it down to keep the homies happy?". New Belgium was unceremoniously dumped for Eddyline, the types of bands were also changed.

As far as they paddling aspect goes, there was more of an emphasis on paddling this year than in recent years past. However, I do agree that the inclusion of SUP events kind of screwed up the Freestyle events. There needs to be better planning and scheduling - that said, it's not as easy as it looks. This year they had two slalom events, one on Wednesday - US Age Group National Championship, then Saturday with the regular FibArk Slalom Races. I know a lot of you disdain about slalom, but until you try it, STFU - It's hard.

FibArk was born from a downriver race and a lot of you forget that simple fact. It's still about the downriver racing. Some of you have never attempted to paddle 26 miles as fast as you can in a DR wildwater boat. Again STFU until you try it and gain the understanding of the effort required to do so.

I agree there needs to be more paddling related booths and gear on display, with units you can demo - be it SUP boards, kayaks, canoes, etc. The only three booths with boats you could demo were Pyranha,Jackson and Fluid. Apparently Dagger/Wavesport could not be bothered, neither could Blisstick, Drago-Rossi, Prijon, Gui-Gui, Vajda, Galasport, and all of the other smaller boat manufacturers.

I for one would like to see the Jackson RV parked elsewhere and 3 or 4 more kayak booths set up in its place.

Of more importance is the issue of the railroad side of the river. Something needs to be done to either acquire the land from UP or lease it and turn it into low-cost tent camping and parking, after they seed it with grass. They could put some rules in place; like no drugs/no alcohol, no fires, no crazy ass shit, and oh yeah - no prostitutes. Salida East aka Dust Bowl is simply too far out to encourage more spending by attendees. It takes money to keep this going and the locals are definitely happier when we contribute to their bottom line.

I would suggest people who have complaints, send those complaints in a written and constructive manner to the FibArk board.

 

Here'a stab at an answer. First off, I don't think this is something that can be hung on Fibark in any way. Its clear that the various potential vendors don't see it as marketing dollars well spent. You don't see those vendors at any whitewater events anymore that I am aware of. Kudos to those that are present. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Jackson, Pyranha and Fluid all had a presence and I think all had demos available. In this regard, and others, perhaps Paddlefest in BV is a little more paddling oriented these days at least in terms of product presence and demoing through CKS.

It seemed there was a decent SUPing presence and I'm always glad to see the most important booth in its familiar place representing all of us. Thanks AW.

You can always approach any rep from a company in the form of a pro paddling for them and get feedback and often they can set you up for a demo.

I too had a good time at Fibark. Lots of great competitions with a particular favorite of mine standing on the podium in Men's pro freestyle with a ridiculous repping of Ark valley boating and seeing so many old friends and current ones. For me, that's the best part, celebrating our amazing community with so many awesome fellow river rats.

Can it be better, yes. Do I look forward to it and enjoy it every year, yes.

 

Thanks Phil U....that makes sense. I really like the events too, I see old friends and new ones. I also like the camaraderie of the boaters, competitors and the tourist faces of amazement when they see our awesome sport up close and personal. I guess another favorite is being able to hang and chat it up with the very awesome and approachable Jackson family.

 

I'm on board with Logan and Nathan.

This year the boating seemed to be pushed back as a side show, a tiny piece of the whole offering. In years past it's always been about the river, and what goes on on the river. The event has been centered around the activities going on in the water, but this year it was like "COME LOOK AT THE PARK AND OUR SWEET CARNIVAL LOL ZOMG!!!!!1" and "oh yeah, I guess if youre bored and a loser you can go watch those silly kayakers...."

Like Nathan said, how much of a joke is it that people left as the pro guys were starting. Isn't that like watching the major leagues of kayaking? To boaters its badass, but to the crowds of drunk masses, it's a sideshow. And a total shame that they get shunned like that.

Understand about the complaints about camping.....But like one bro said, you force people to camp four miles away, A) they aren't going to want to spend money and b) they certainly arent going to buy any beer there. Seems like the organizers knew they were forcing people into drinking and driving but they just didnt give a shit. But they gots allllllll kinds of shit out of those sorry excuse for porta potties Saturday night I bet.

Bottom line: just like Logan said, too much of "the crowd that travels around to music festivals and parties like their 18". All they want to do is get fucked up and stumble around. They don't respect the river, or why the event exists in the first place, its just "give me more booze"!

 

Fibark is what it is.

It's always been a party.
UP is a very difficult organization to deal with. They will not bend their insurance requirements for a big event, and their requirements would bankrupt an event like Fibark.
If the companies made money having booths, they would be there. People don't drop $2-$5 K on an impulse buy, and that is what a package costs in our sport.
I love kayaking, and I can't sit through a entire event in the freestyle park. I don't think it is meant to be a spectator event outside of the mens and womens pro's. I think it is a personal thing for paddlers to see how they stack up against their bro's. Sort of like what the down river race that Fibark started as, or the mothers day race on the Rio used to be.
I'm glad people still care enough to go.

SUP is carrying the water sports industry now. I see 20 boards for every kayak I encounter.​

 

It's always been a party.

SUP is carrying the water sports industry now. I see 20 boards for every kayak I encounter.​

It has always been a party, but it's always been a boater party. This year it's like they were saying the boaters were the reason the parties happened, so we need to replace the boaters with safe, family fun from the front range.

And that's fine about SUP, but they should just rename it "Salida SUP Days, Where Boaters Need Not Apply Or Visit" to better reflect the event

 

I think the problem with FIBArk is the carnival. It is all that mess and noise that brings in all the non-boating drinkers. We don't need that. Replace it all with industry vendors and make the whole event an actually national river industry show.

 

Isn't SUP for geezers who can't roll anymore?

 

I was teasing the SUP'ers (kind of)

If it is on the water, I guess I say it belongs in the festival. The whole carnival part is for the locals and those with kids and random touristas who happen to stumble through Salida.

Focusing back on the boating aspect would be nice. I think they mostly accomplished that this year with the only exceptions being not enough reps from boating and boating related companies.

I do wish the JK RV would get parked elsewhere. I think the hype is over and they should do like everyone else and have a 12x12 space with boats and someone actually there handling questions and demos. The RV takes up at least 4 spaces that could be better used.

 

I do wish the JK RV would get parked elsewhere. I think the hype is over and they should do like everyone else and have a 12x12 space with boats and someone actually there handling questions and demos. The RV takes up at least 4 spaces that could be better used.

Where's the love for Jackson? Oh yeah, its been transferred to Pyranha.
Congrats to the boy.

I'll bet all that want a space on that ramp/road get one. And you know as well as anyone that Jackson brings a hell of a lot more than hype to freestyle comps. I'm glad to see Demshits taking competing a lot more seriously this year. Kudos to all those boyze. They are stepping it up in terms of product and performance but they have a ways to go before they are close to contributing what Jackson does to make events happen. Jackson also brings credibility and raises the quality of the events on the tour. Need I mention the new Rockstar was paddled by all 5 men's finalists and the quality of those finals was as high as you will see this side of a Worlds. That's not hype, those are results.

 

I will address every comment in this thread personally.. As I busted my ass this year to make this festival happen. I'm not going to let a couple of people who have some internet courage tear it down.

For starters I will answer the major question. the list of industry companies who were contacted to have a booth at fibark is 3 pages long. When I get home I will post it. Call your favorite company and ask them why they weren't here.

Here's a spoiler alert on their answer. NONE of these companies have any money for this sort of thing. Booths at Fibark are CHEAP in comparison to trade shows and other events. I got denied by 85% of companies I contacted, and 100% of them said they either didn't have the money to get to fibark or that they were concentrating on Major trade shows like OR.

Another bit of Info CKS Paddlefest and The Go Pro games happened right before fibark. They are both less than 2 hours away. CKS sells a ton of these companies products and Vail is a much more appealing market if you are looking for people who are going to spend money. I am proud that we are still able to have a boat ramp full of whitewater vendors. Take it or leave it.

 

Hi Tom, First...thanks for all the hard work. I know its not easy and I thought you did a great job behind the scenes. Please don't get me wrong, I meant no disrespect with my original question about the vendors and know that my family and I had a blast this year at FIBark. The river should teach us all a very important life lesson and that is "its dynamic and always changing" so is life. So when the computer glitchs started happening and the schedule got off skewed at Saturday night...it was no biggy for me. As far as my vendor question, I think FIBark is such a great venue and good opportunity for industry folks to get some good exposure that all. But your response makes since. I have contacted 2 of my favorite vendors and one told me she has been trying to get down there to FIBark for years and is gonna make it happen next year. As far as some of the Jackson haters out there complaining about the RV etc etc, the Jacksons are loyal and have been loyal to FIBark for along time. They also are great advocates for our sport(s). They make themselves available and approachable to FIBark attendees and I really enjoy hangin out on the boat ramp just chatting it up with them. I bet you never have to beg them to come to FIBark! Anyway, in closing, you are never gonna be able to make everyone happy so don't let the negative feedback get to you. FIBark much like the river has been around a long time and it will survive the negative feedback. Much like the river, it may flow fast, slow and even change course sometimes...but that the nature of the river.
Hope to see ya next year...we already have it on the calendar.
****

 

In response to the Freestyle Schedule- computer glitches aside-- we were not that far off schedule. As someone mentioned having freestyle, sup events and the hooligan on one night is a bear of a schedule. But we do not have space elsewhere to change it. Also sponsors like Badfish and others want their events around hooligan.. That's when we have the crowds.

The computer system some are complaining about was brought in by me personally. With the exception of Phil I am sure none of you have ever scribed freestyle. On a feature like Salida's the potential to link moves is huge. Trying to scribe this accurately on paper is a nightmare and results in math errors. Our men's finals were judged so well there was a 2 point difference between second and third. Judges error is still always an issue- but I can assure you the computer system does a better job at scribing and math. It will be better next year.

I apologize for the minor delays.. 2 hours is a major over statement. I also apologize for having to run juniors during hooligan. The competitors were asked if they cared and they didn't. I can also tell you Hunter has never had a bigger crowd cheering on his loops.. Same for the rest of those guys.

 

In response to camping across the river. Get over it.. It's never going to happen again.

The amount of money Union Pacific would charge plus the insurance they would require would easily make camping over there more than any of you will pay. Especially because fibark would have to hire a company and security to manage the camping.

Camping across the river started harmlessly and snowballed into an out of control scene. It's a shame it had to be closed down, but the city of Salida dropped the hammer. The city are the ones who shut down the roads and posted signs... They don't have an Internet forum but I am sure you can email them.

 

Response to FIBArk River Events-

Look at our schedule- it is jammed full of river events. We have more than any other festival. We added more this year and will try to add even more for next year. Fibark is a celebration of the first race. I think it is perfectly acceptable for a celebration to include some music and a carnival. They are not the focus! They are what YOU are focusing on. Change your perception and take a walk down to the river where we had a schedule so thick with river events my head was exploding.

We have Bands mostly at night when river events can't happen. And we have a carnival because it is good for the local kids. We could never fill the space taken up by the carnival with vendors- as I
Have stated earlier they do not have the money to come.