KANANASKIS COUNTRY – The Kananaskis Whitewater Festival is celebrating 30 years of making waves on the Kananaskis River this weekend (Aug. 11-13).
Since its inception in 1993, Kanfest, as it’s known, has drawn water sport enthusiasts of all skill levels to engage in friendly competition and river recreation, while contributing to the preservation and enhancement of the popular waterway.
“It’s really a place for kayaking, stand up paddleboard (SUP) enthusiasts and surfers to get together and have a fun weekend,” said Shane Weatherill, Kanfest committee member.
“At the end of the day, all of this is about generating revenue to pump into the Kananaskis River for maintenance and development of the river.”
One of the most highly-anticipated developments is the addition of a multi-adjustable river wave system, which will be built upstream of Canoe Meadows – the course which hosts Kanfest – and downstream of another mountain wave, designed and built by Surf Anywhere for the Alberta River Surfing Association in 2014.
Construction was slated to begin on the newest river wave as early as October 2023, but Alberta Whitewater Association (AWA) executive director Mike Holroyd said it’s been pushed to 2024, with another design phase in the spring and construction likely in fall.
Researched by Surf Anywhere and the University of Ottawa, the transformable wave idea employs a multi-adjustable system to sculpt waves, enabling different surf experiences in one location.
Holroyd said the cost of the project in its initial design had become too costly due to its complexity and high-level adjustability and needed to be scaled back.
“Our original quote was about $120,000 and then it went up to $700,000. We’ve currently got it down to under four [hundred thousand dollars], but we’re still working on a few more simplifications,” he said.
While the river’s newest feature won’t play into this year’s Kanfest, it will likely be used for its freestyle event in the future.
Because the river is man-made with added features, Weatherill said it has much to offer for whitewater enthusiasts of all types and skill levels.
“As a result, you have features that are planned, which makes it a really good place for beginners to develop,” he said. “Generally speaking, there are also large sections between features, which leaves more time for correction and recovery.”
Dam-controlled, the Kananaskis River also has consistent flow rates throughout the year, with timing dependent on run-off and electricity production variables of TransAlta’s Barrier Plant.
“When everything else is long frozen, you can go out there in the middle of February in negative temperatures and you will find people using that river,” said Weatherill.
Held in the late summer, Kanfest typically draws about 200 people to attend each year.
The annual all-things-whitewater festival is one of the province’s biggest and offers a variety of water-based lessons throughout the weekend, and is catered to fun, friendly competition with three days of events and races including SUP cross races, raft rodeo, kayak extreme slalom cross, inflatable rodeo, freestyle kayaking and the ball race.
The event also makes use of the river’s dam release operations with one activity, which sees people equipped with personal flotation devices stand in the river together in a designated location before water is released and washes people away, one by one.
“As the river comes up, it starts washing people away and the last person standing in that particular area wins that competition,” said Weatherill. “So, it’s a lot of fun.”
Registration for the event includes camping fees as many choose to stay at the Canoe Meadows campground, managed by the AWA. All funds collected through the campground are also used for the river, to maintain its course and facilities.
“Everything that we’re doing there, we’re really always putting that back in to make it a better place,” said Holroyd.
Tickets can be purchased at www.kanfest.ca.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
