Zoar Outdoor Hosting '07 Wildwater Nationals

Rafting America partner and member Zoar Outdoor has been selected to host the 2007 USA Wildwater Nationals. The Nationals will be held on August 24-26, 2007. The Deerfield River is the selected site for the runs. Normally, the official website for USAWildwater has all the latest news, but this is a little ahead of the game.

The great part about holding the Nationals is that the Dryway section will receive water releases for the Saturday and Sunday rafting. The river is an ideal location for the runs, with mild class II and III rapids. Zoar has hosted nationals before, so they are familiar with the process and the events.

Zoar Outdoor offers river trips on the Deerfield River, Concord River, West River, and others. Zoar is also well known for their kayak clinics. The owner, Bruce, is a renown Olympic paddler and runs a very good kayak clinic on-site.

Waveyard- Water Sports Dream in Phoenix

Waveyard, the up-coming water sports resort and villa has its new website up- www.waveyard.com. The new park will have white water rafting, kayaking, surfing, scuba diving, beaches, shopping, retail stores, villas and more. Probably the largest and most unique of its kind, this boasts to be quite the resort/waterpark destination.

It will be interesting to see how the profitability pans out. Some of the other whitewater parks (focusing strictly on whitewater rafting/kayaking) are getting mixed results. This takes the concept to a whole new level. Location seems to be good. Product is right and price is yet to be determined (I would imagine from the look and feel that it would be expensive). The marketing and promotion will play a major role.

Other whitewater parks seem to focus on local markets for the day-to-day business. Not quite as wide a scope as normal whitewater rafting outfitters. The water sports resort would (I assume) try to pull from a much larger audience. The whitewater rafting and kayaking portion of the park would probably be less of an attraction with all the other activities. But fun nonetheless.

New Film "Western Canada- Far and Wild" Ready

John Wilson, a well known wildlife documentary filmaker, recently showed his newest creation to a crowd in MI, reported a local paper. His new film about the backcountry of Canada feature Carabou in the Yukon, the Nahanni River and many other Canadian highlights.


John has done a number of Canadian wildlife pictures, and has won many awards for his great filography. It is true that Canada has some of the best wildlife and outback adventure desitnations in the world. White water rafting and/or kayaking in Canada is something that few people think about, but is perhaps one of the best ways to view the most scenic areas. Ther are plenty of places to visit when it comes to rafting in Canada. The most popular destinations are British Columbia and the Ottawa river. However, companies such as Nahanni/Canadian River Expeditions give full backcountry excursions through the Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories.


The film can be purchased from the Travel Video Store, currently listed for $19.95.

Rafting America Ready to Launch Newsletter

White water rafting network Rafting America is set to launch a 2007 email newsletter campaign to rafters all across North and South America. The Newsletter will be sent seasonally, focusing on various rafting destinations across the Americas.

It will also have a calendar of events, special highlight sections and and deals happening through the various member outfitters. The newsletter will be the largest of its kind. Rafting America plans to send out over 2 million emails over the course of 2007.

Here is a sneak peak at email concepts for the new newsletter.