Long before it was a mountain bike town, long before it was a hiking town, long before it was a camping town, Salida was a river town. Every June since 1949, pandemic years excepted, they have held an event called FIBArk, for First in Boating in the Arkansas river, to celebrate the river and those who love it. That first event was a single race of 57 miles from Salida to Canon City. Twenty three entered, only two finished. These days, FIBArk is a full-blown four-day festival with multiple races on and off the river, music, food and all types of white-water shenanigans.
FIBArk attracts white-water enthusiasts from all over the world. This past weekend was the 2021 edition. Not being familiar with the ways of white water we decided to go check it out. Odd name, cool festival, good times!
The first thing I noticed is that to be a proper river person you have to have a rack on your car to carry as many kayaks as possible.
The coolest thing about FIBArk is that most of the events are held right downtown at the end of F Street, which makes for spectator-friendly access and great hanging-out-by-the-river opportunities.
I learned you can surf in Salida. I used to walk by this store and chuckle to myself, thinking it was some kind of river town inside joke. Nope. People actually surf in the river. The idea is to find what they call a standing wave, jump into it with your board and then try to stay there as long as you can while doing spins and turns. Sort of a surf treadmill.
Events for kayaks, canoes, stand-up paddle boards and rafts are the core of FIBArk.
Here’s a short clip of the winner of the pro slalom event executing two gates.
They don’t close the river for the races, so in between events you get to watch random tourist rafts coming down the river.
And whatever this is. Cheers dude!
On Sunday I decided to come out of retirement for one day and join in on the FIBArk mountain bike race. The race was a 14-mile course in the Arkansas Hills trail system, starting and ending near the F Street bridge downtown. It was really fun to mix it up with fellow racers again. I got a t-shirt, a water bottle, and a solid mid-pack finish, so a good day!
