Whitewater Weekend

For the past 25 years the Mascoma River kayak competition, hosted by the Ledyard Canoe Club, has pitted some of the Northeast's finest slalom and wild-water racers against a river swollen by spring runoff. The slalom is the spectator sport of choice. Hundreds of onlookers line the river bank along a course that Dartmouth coach Tim Fisher calls "a playing field that is moving beneath you."

Dartmouth enjoys a home river advantage. Each year Fisher custom-designs a course rigorous enough for the experts like U.S. teammates Brenden MacLean '89 and Bruce Swomley '81 but still easy enough for the less skilled. The Mascoma run is along a stretch of the river rated class 2 or 3 on a 6-point scale.

Unlike a ski racer, who has the relative luxury of going downhill all the way, a kayaker negotiates gates while moving downstream, upstream or even backwards. The skilled kayaker makes the course 25 gates planted in a kind of aquatic rock garden look effortless. Even someone who knows nothing about the sport can spot the not-so-skilled kayakers. They are the ones catching a rapid the wrong way, flipping, and trying to Eskimo roll in near-freezing water.

A Winner: When the final results were tabulated, Bruce Swomley '81, above, placed second. His U.S. teammate Brendan Maclean '89, who finished fourth, describes the challenges of kayaking: "You have to know every move in the course. You are constantly in a fluid state, evaluating your position, seeing how your lines (the route between gates) are working and how the water and your body feel."

Crowd-pleaser: The annual Mascoma River kayak competition provides splash for kayakers and spectators. Number 76, Ken Stone, maneuvers his way past the fans.