Extreme boaters break the rules at Whitewater Challenge

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Rule is that whenever mountain or rock climbing you should never look down..

Longtime rock climber Stephen Wright broke this rule while scaling a canyon wall out west, and it changed his life — and passions — instantly.

“I looked down and I saw some people kayaking in the river below,” the Washington D.C. native said. “I said to myself, ‘Gee, that looks like fun. I might want to try that.’ ”

Several weeks ago, Wright won his fifth kayak freestyle national championship in Reno, Nevada. Little after that, Wright made his annual trip to Charles City where a storm-fueled Cedar River beckoned.

“This is a great place to kayak,” said Wright, who served as the master of ceremonies during the Charles City Whitewater Weekend Challenge at the Whitewater park, June 18.

“I’ve been here all week,” Wright said. “I was out there after the big rain when the river was high the and the water was muddy.

“The high water flattened out the big wave on the first feature,” Wright said of the feature called “Dam Drop”, located below the walking bridge. “Now, the water is perfect.”

There were a lot of veteran kayakers at the challenge, including Dave Hillman of Cedar Rapids who added to his collection of medals with a first-place effort in the open short-boat competition and a third-place showing in open long-boat.

“The water is awesome,” Hillman said after one of his runs, “but right now I need oxygen.”

Youth was also served at the challenge. One of the more decorated boaters in terms of medals won that day was Mount Vernon 11-year-old Klayten Perrault.

“This is my first time down this river,” Klayten said after he was edged by Conner Lunning of Mason City in the youth downriver race.

“I’ve been at the Manchester waterpark, which has more features,” Perreault said, “but they’re not as fast and they don’t have the waves like they do here.”

Aaron Pravechek, from Manitowoc, Wis., also favors quality over quantity when it comes to negotiating whitewater.

“The three features here are very challenging and the complement each other,” Pravechek said of the Dam Drop, Doc’s Drop and Exit Exam, where the “King of the Waves” competition was held.

In order to be ‘King’, you had to surf Exit Exam the longest while trying to capsize your opponents who are trying to capsize you.

“While trying to push other people over, I just ended up pushing myself over,” said Pravechek, who participated in “King of the Waves”.

In the end emerged an undisputed king, Rick Rassier.

With “Drug Free” scripted in bold letters on his paddles, the 56-year-old St. Cloud, Minn. man put on a show while showboating in the process with several celebratory barrel rolls after the competition drifted away.

“My message is to celebrate progress,” said Rassier, a former professional volleyball player who used to give motivational speeches at schools while single-handedly defeating the resident varsity teams. “A lot of people only get excited about winning, but we all should get excited about progress.”

Back in top form while competing in gruelling “King of the Waves” and freestyle kayaking-like challenges is progress for Rassier. Last summer while competing in a freestyle event at in Wausau, Wis., Rassier — who says he’s never had a drop of alcohol in his life — suffered a cardiac arrest before being resuscitated with CPR and a defibrillator.

Reportedly four days later, Rassier was back on the water.