# Whitewater Park coming to Oklahoma City



## Davehepp (Aug 25, 2015)

The city of Oklahoma City is building a huge, dual channel "pumped" whitewater park, to be managed by the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation. 
Here is a link to updated construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyVK...ature=youtu.be ​

I recently moved to Oklahoma City to build the team of staff to operate the course. We are scheduled to open to the public in May 2016. We will run the rafting operation and kayak instruction operation very similar to most commercial outfitters without having to run shuttle basically. The course be class II - IV and will be completely variable, thus giving us ample opportunity to build great surfing waves and holes....right in downtown OKC. We're building a restaurant/bar and stage in the park. 

Based on the possible guest attendance and through-put as well as the proforma, I will have plenty of raft guide and kayak instructor jobs for the 2016 season and beyond. I have planned for 3-4 salaried/management positions in raft and kayak departments that I'm now accepting applications and interviewing for in the coming months. My goal is to have the management team in place by late winter 2016. 

I will also be seeking 15-25 veteran raft guides and 5-10 kayak instructors interested in guiding/teaching in Oklahoma City for 2016. We will start teaching raft guiding to locals as soon as we have water, but the park will need several skilled/veteran guides to bring the river culture to Oklahoma City and make this project the real deal. The citizens of OKC are fired up, so we need good people to deliver a killer experience. 

If you have any interest and/or want to hear more about the project feel free to shoot me an email...
Dave Hepp [email protected]

And here is a link to our website and career page:

Careers - Boathouse District

Thanks and please spread the word!! We'll be surfing in OKC soon...


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## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

Hi Dave, I'm very interested in this facility. I have a lot of experience working at ASCI, a similar whitewater attraction in Maryland, as well as being an experienced raft, IK, and river board guide. I'll get my resume up to date and submit it to you over the weekend. I'm near Lawton, about an hour to OKC.

Can wait to y'all turn on the pumps!!!


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

Looks pretty cool. I'm curious how long the course is going to be that you will be offering guided whitewater rafting, are they going to take guests on a dozen laps of the course? 

This might actually make me want to visit Oklahoma.... Thanks for sharing.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

15-25 veteran guides? Should be no problem, every rookie I've ever trained is from Oklahoma...

Are you really building artificial Class IV?


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## paulk (Apr 24, 2006)

What's the planned season for this to operate?


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

This will be the third park of its kind. The first being in Charlotte NC. The second was for the London Olympics and now this one. There is a lot of footage on youtube for anyone that wants to get an idea about what it will look like finished. This particular park will have two channels. One beginer channel and one expert. At the bottom both features will merge and there will be one larger wave,feature that will accommodate all the water.It will have class IV and will probably see an eight to nine month season. From what I understand the total guide count will be around 60+. Guide training is set to start around 04-02-2016. Im not for sure how many laps will be included in a "guided trip" but I'm sure the customers will have the option to do as many as they like. It will be really nice to bring the kayaking rafting culture to the downtown okc area.


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

*Housing*

I know its limited but they do have housing available. Please spread the word if you know anyone that might be interested. Seems like it could be a good option for pre or post season Colorado guides.


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## panicman (Apr 7, 2005)

Will they allow you to bring your own raft? Would be a blast to take a mini max down with oar frame and good practice.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Who are the guides working for? Is the course public? Will there just be the one outfitter (OKC)?


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

Guides will be working for the okc boathouse district. The only rafts or raft trips allowed at the park will be commercial and provided by okc boathouse. As of now there will be no private raft trips in the park. Private kayak trips are available as well as private lessons. This means you can bring a group of students and teach your own class. There will be a fee per person for this option. If I remember right it's somewhere around 8-10 bucks a head.


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

*Public park*

Yes this is a public park paid for by the tax payers of Oklahoma. Season passes are available for around 175.00 bucks.


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## Rustynuts (Nov 9, 2015)

Does the park have a website up and running? We have boaters all over ArkMo ready to load up and head over , but there only seems to be rumor and takeout mumblings of what will really be offered.


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

*Website*

Boathousedistrict.org


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## Davehepp (Aug 25, 2015)

Thanks for all of the questions.....

Once we get closer to operating in April/May, we'll have our hours that water is running up on the website. We expect to operate March - October, maybe even November. Much to be learned in the first year.....

As for ww boaters, we'll take all types as long as they are in whitewater specific crafts (no dick sporting goods rafts). No personal rafts will be allowed.

Pricing is shaping up to be $19 per day to paddle (whether we operate 8 hours of water or 3). Season pass price pass is $179 for the year, through Dec. 31.

We have two channels, and can run the whole park on 6 pumps or one channel on 3 pumps (or more but probably can't fit more than 4 down one channel without flooding).

Most guests will be non-boaters and will buy a day pass for $49 that includes rafting, the zip line and other land activities. In theory you can repeat rafting as long as we have capacity. Raft trips will be 90 minutes long and more than likely you'll get 4-7 laps. There is a conveyor belt from bottom to top. 

Park has 21 feet of drop total, one channel is 1000 ft long, the second is 1400 feet long - they come together at the bottom to form a big feature.

We have a locker room in the main building, restaurant, bar. There is a rafting pavilion where rafting guests gear up and go, rafts are stored. There is also a kayak building where we'll run a kayak instruction program as well as youth team, and regular kayakers can check in and demo from our fleet of kayaks (we're starting with Jackson, will add LL and Dagger and whoever else once we are operational and financially stable) 

As I mentioned in my first post, I will need raft guides and instructors, especially in the first year or two. Please spread the word, I'm starting organize staffing now for May and June....grand opening is May 7th weekend. We're hosting slalom Olympic Trials that same weekend. 

My email is [email protected]


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Will inflatable kayaks be allowed?


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

Thank you for the udated, more specific information. Definitely sounds cool. I get a kick out of the conveyor belt idea...but what does "no personal rafts allowed" mean? No private rafts? I would personally be kayaking, but I would hope all private boaters would have equal opportunity to utilize this amazing resource.


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

*Ik's & Private rafts*

Ik's will be allowed at some point. As far as private rafts go... From what I understand its not part of the plan. This means if you want to go rafting it will have to be through the boathouse district. However things do change but I wouldn't count on it. There are a lot of reasons for not having private rafts-oar rigs mixed with commercial trips in such a small area. Safety being the biggest.


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## Rustynuts (Nov 9, 2015)

Oar rigs I can understand, no boater deserves to be in range of my flailing sticks. But to come out against letting a paddle team make some practice runs every other Tuesday or something seems a little harsh, seeing its not even up and pumping yet.


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## robfather (Dec 24, 2003)

Yeah rusty, I hear ya. By no means am I making any rules. I know their extremely busy right now getting things in order. I'm just trying to field some questions to the best of my knowledge.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

I think it's sweet. I learned to rock climb in silos with bolted holds in Oklahoma City. Now there's an artificial river! 

Make it IK friendly and I might just stop for a day on my way to Gauley. Will you allow guest guides to work for Labor Day and Halloween?


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## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

ASCI has always allowed private rafts, never been an issue to my knowledge with overcrowding. There does seem to be less private rafts in the east, but I doubt you'd see to many rubber pushers filling up the place. Maybe a private raft limit per trip would be a more welcoming concept.


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## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

https://youtu.be/550leWXDJYE

The good old days up at the fake river. These places are little to much fun for people used to the risks associated with real rivers.


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## Davehepp (Aug 25, 2015)

Yes, we will allow inflatable kayaks, river boards, shredders....basically all crafts that are whitewater specific. (nothing you'd purchase at Dick's sporting goods).

We will not allow personal rafts, meaning if you want to come rafting you have to sign up for a trip and raft through us with one of our guides. 

If you want to become one of our guides that would be great, we can work with individual's schedules. Part of the reason I am posting on here is we'd prefer to have some seasoned guides on staff to help train the locals as we build a river culture in OKC. 

Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or give me a call at 405-552-4040 x)4511.


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## Rustynuts (Nov 9, 2015)

Dave, a little confused here,as we always thought a shredder was an r-2 , =raft 2man. Not sure the reasoning behind no private rafts but anyway, not my sandbox. 
Aside from that the real question folks have is , Say we show up with kayaks and oc-1 , do we buy time blocks , all day ,do laps till we drop? Will there be a time schedule where the CFS from the pumps changes? Will there be quotas for the number of paddlers on the course at any given time? Is the course to be lighted , or a dawn to dusk affair?


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## Davehepp (Aug 25, 2015)

Basically keep an eye on our online calendar and when the water is on you can paddle. It'll be $19 for the day ($179/year), paddle as much or as little as you want. No time blocks, the only "sessions" considered non-public water would be if the development or US slalom team has an exclusive training session. That will be notated on the web as well. There will be lights and I'm sure we'll run at night. 
Once we have the schedule up on the web, we'll post it. 

At this point, until we actually turn it on and figure the place out we won't claim any quota on number of boats allowed on. Like any natural river, there will be busier times than others and you'll be able to figure out when you enjoy it the most. The goal is to treat the park as if it were a natural river, same rules, etiquette, etc etc. with the convenience of being able to control the flow and schedule. We just have to make it the business model work (which means run a big, efficient rafting company). If all goes well, we'll be surfing all the time. Hope this helps, my info is above if you want to email me.


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## benjamin_smith (Jul 22, 2013)

Looks like it's coming together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5s3spG9AI

Does anyone know if there will be a river surf wave for surfboards/SUPs?


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## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm going up this weekend. I'm taking a raft, playcat, and ripboard (river board) up with me. It should be a good time, they are having some big opening party, and a race. We'll see how sticky they set the holes. They'll probably have stuff set pretty green...or brown I guess.. which is good for the racers and maybe your board. This is all assuming they used wave shaping in the design and didn't build it like a playpark on a natural river.


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## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

I had about twice as much fun as I expected. This facility is amazing and slot of thought went into the design. It's got two channels, one comp (2-3) and a rec channel (4ish). The comp channel was closed yesterday and today, the Olympic trails are underway. In addition to watching that race I also got to catch some of the crew rowing races, a first for me and quite exciting. The whitewater is all changeable with the addition of removal of big plastic lego block things, which is sweet but I do prefer the pneumatic wave shapers because it's a bit easier and a lot faster to shape really good surf waves or bad keepers for rescue training. I was able to row my small cat, the comp course is tight and fast, very realistic feel, no super grabby eddys. Below the two channels the river forms together and makes one final big drop, this is the play feature. This wave is super fun! The water is deep enough for loops, the pillow keeps you in and two giant eddys make it easy to get back up. I had a few awesome flips before putting the cat away and r2ing a new friends calubra (spl?) grande (what a fun big paddle cat!). After some brews I got up the courage to take the rip board out, I didn't have my knee pads and was in chacos so it was a pretty bad idea in the concrete course. Boarding head first down the rec channel was a blast, and the big play feature was so easy to enter I got in several times without fins. All in all a great addition to okc, if you find yourself on 40 and you're wanting to get wet stop by, I bet you'll be impressed. It's also very affordable, I paid $19 for my day pass. I think the year pass is $180, which is good for all activities there not just the river. I'll get some pics off my wife's phone and post them here later.


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## Sherpa9543 (Jul 22, 2014)

I'm so confused. Private paddle cats are allowed, but a private mini Max is not?


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