I want to thank Duane and Evelyn at TG Canoe and Kayak in Martindale for putting on such a great event

I want to thank Duane and Evelyn at TG Canoe and Kayak in Martindale for putting on such a great event. They organized this event with the Lions Club of San Marcos and the San Marcos Urban River Foundation (SMURF), the Lions Club shut down tube rentals and the shuttle on the River for Saturday and Sunday, giving kayakers pretty much free run of the river...really awesome. Thankfully the weatherman was wrong and it was a beautiful day Saturday and Sunday. Without a cloud in the sky the weather warmed into the 80s and the community turned out in force. The Mayor of San Marcos, along with the city controller and other council members stopped by, they all had LARGE smiles. The city has done a great job in building Rio Vista Park and all they're hard work was on full display for their first real event in the new park. They held the first annual Texas Whitewater championships, and had a slalom course placed out below the whitewater section of the park. They also had a water polo tournament going on all weekend, very interesting seeing guys paddling kevlar kayaks that you can barely see in the water at powerboat speed head on into each other. Flipping opposing teammates upside down and stealing the ball, really intertaining..kinda like rugby in kayaks..lots of very good technical paddlers in these groups and it was cool to see them making draw strokes and sweeps etc to get into position. The people could not have been nicer and Duane and Evelyn and the Lions Club made me feel like I was back home in San Marcos.

First I stopped by Martindale. There is a nice dam on the river and as a student we spent many days laying out on the dam, and many nites skinny dipping above the dam. They had plenty of rain the day before and the river was really flowing

At the right of this picture you will see a burm in the water flow, there is actually a cave that is just big enough to fit maybe two people in there, but not when the water is flowing like this.

I also stopped by 5mile dam on the Blanco to see how high the water was, there are soo many areas of water within 20 miles of San Marcos it's hard to pic one to paddle.

Stopped by the old Pike House (my old fraternity). They sold it several years ago and it appeared to have been vacant for some time. I almost shed a tear at it's state of disrepair. I had heard the owners wanted to tear it down but since it was a civil war hospital and a historic land mark they couldn't. So I guess the plan it to let it run down so much that the city will condem it and let them tear it down

This is the upper section of Rio Vista Park. They removed the old dam and placed large boulders and other rock structures and concrete to create a nice white water section of the river.

This is the lower section..there are actually 3 stages to the whitewater, but since I'm uneducated in the whole thing, it just looked like a fun tube trip to me. But it has holes, and other technical water features.

The course

Plenty of kayaks to paddle..the proceeds went to the Lions club and the San Marcos Urban River Foundation.

Taking some..looked fun..might have to run it in my Caper.

This is how I'd probably look doing it though.. :oops:

Lots of places to sit and check out the action

Of course I took a break and went for a paddle..good luck keeping me out of that water..it was awesome

Reminded me why I loved living in this city soo much..

My kayak on display

This is my Caper that I took for a river stroll...I love this kayak..I spent most of the day standing in this yak..there will be many days flyfishing from this rig.

Water Polo