The water was really pumping hard for the 6th Annual Hell or Whitewater festival on Saturday. I attended with family and friends to enjoy the sights, sounds and moving water of this fun and entertaining event. The Petawawa is a spectacular piece of whitewater running through the center of the town. With the high water spring flows the rapids are transformed into to fun and formidable obstacles for all those paddling the river. Canoes, kayaks , and inflatables took their turns running all the rapids, some for pleasure and others in friendly race competition. An awesome event that is run by some great organizers and volunteers. I attended for only Saturday but it runs over the full weekend with the Sunday potion including and excursion into Algonquin Provincial park to run the upper sections of the Petawawa river.
I photographed and ran the river with Scott MacGregor as we tested out the new AIRE Sabretooth raft. I have a boat callled a Shredder and this is a beefed up version made a bit longer and wider. It is a fantastic boat to paddle and it handles with the same speed and precision as the Shredder. Great boat for an experienced paddler to take a complete novice down some serious whitewater. My photographer friend Patrick Haag provided the ideal test subject as he climbed aboard for his first ever whitewater experience.
Great time as usual, here are some photos that I manged to fit in between laps on the river.
