May 8 canoe and kayak race is shaping up

The agenda for the May 8 Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak races is shaping up.

A local outdoors retailer will have a 'demo day' at Darden Towe so you can test drive canoes and kayaks, The Rose of Nelson batteau will be on display at Darden Towe for your enjoyment and education, T-shirts and hats will be available along with light refreshments and the Elks Club (at the entrance of Darden Towe) will be hosting a separate car show that day.  Come on out and join us at Darden Towe!  Racers are expected to start crossing the finish line at ~10:45am and with several heats and classes they will continue crossing the finish line until at least 12pm so pack a lunch, take plenty of pictures to share with us and have a wonderful time along the friendly banks of the Rivanna River.

T-shirts and hats will be available on race day

Rivanna River Regatta Canoe & Kayak Paddler t-shirts and hats are here and will be available for purchase both at the starting and finish lines of the May 8 race.  These are high quality garments with the embroidered logo and will be selling for $15 each (cash only).  All net proceeds will go to Mr. Bishop to help offset his costs/expenses for hosting this race (prize money, insurance, etc.).

The Rose of Nelson batteau returns for the May 8 Rivanna Regatta!

The Rose of Nelson Batteau will once again work its way down the Rivanna River on race day and dock at Darden Towe Park this year or (if not enough water) will be on a trailer at Darden Towe Park for the day on May 8.

The Virginia Canals and Navigation Society will also have a table display to educate visitors about the batteau, canals and early river history and exploration in Virginia.

Come on out to Darden Towe Park on Saturday, May 8 to cheer on the canoe and kayak racers as they cross the finish line and learn more about this historic batteau.  Bring the entire family because there will be other activities and displays to enjoy also.  Pack a picnic lunch and help make this event a community-building and river appreciation event!

Interview with Merrill Bishop, Race Coordinator for the Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak Races

The 2010 Rivanna Regatta Canoe and Kayak Race

Promo video for the 2010 Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak Races in Charlottesville




The most technical portions of the river

The race route

The 2009 winners

More information regarding the May 8 canoe and kayak races

This section of the Rivanna River is rated Class I + Class II by the American Whitewater Association and may reach Class II+ depending upon conditions on the day of the race.  If you are unfamiliar with the River Classification System then you are strongly urged to become familiar with the classification system and weigh that against your unique paddling skills.  Only you know your skills and what type of water you are capable of handling safely.

You are strongly encouraged to paddle the river prior to the day of the race to become familiar with it.  If you join the Rivanna River Regatta Facebook Group then you will most certainly find other paddlers willing to join you for a recreational trip on this section of the river prior to race day. (One such group of paddlers will be doing this section of the river this Friday, April 2.)

You may also view the following video that shows the entire section of the river used for the race.

Organizational Meeting for Rivanna River Regatta 2010, Wed. 7:30p

There will be an organizational meeting this coming Wednesday, March 31 at Aldersgate Church, 1500 E. Rio Road, Charlottesville at 7:30pm for any and all volunteers who wish to help out with this year's canoe and kayak races and/or those who wish to learn more so they can volunteer to keep this event healthy in future years.

Please contact Race Coordinator Merrill Bishop 975-3072 or RAMBISHOP{at}aol.com for more information or to RSVP for Wednesday's meeting.

The 2010 race is just a little more than one month away

Help us promote the 2010 Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak Races by printing out some copies of the flyer and circulating them amongst any paddlers you know.  The more the merrier. Let's make this year's race the biggest and best one yet!

Also be sure to tell your family and friends to come to Darden Towe Park on May 8 to cheer on the racers as they cross the finish line.

The 2010 Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak Race is coming May 8!

The racers are coming! The racers are coming!

Join us on May 8 for the 5th annual Rivanna River Regatta Canoe and Kayak Races. There will be several classes of races for canoe and kayaks (solo and dual/tandem) and a shorter, Youth (under age 14) race. (Under Age 14 race has been canceled.) If you just want to paddle the river during this time but do not wish to enter the race then by all means come on out, enjoy the fun and watch the racers wizz past you on the river. Spectators are welcome all along the race route but the best vantage point and most excitement will be at the finish line at Darden Towe Park.

Racers should start assembling on the upstream side of the Route 29 bridge (just north of the DoubleTree Hotel and Sam's Club) at 9am for check-in and registration. First heat starts promptly at 10am. More details can be found on the printable flyer.

May 8, 2010 Regatta Flyer with race details

2010 Race Flyer

View as HTML

2009 Race Video is here

Don't forget to join us Wednesday evenings during the summer at the boat ramp just above the S. Rivanna Reservoir dam at the end of Woodburn Rd., Charlottesville. We'll start gathering at 6pm and depart ~6:30pm for leisurely paddles to Twin Bridges and back for all age groups and skill levels. Some even pack food and call it dinner. If you bring chicken wings, however, the "water wings" joke has been heard waaaay too many times. Please resist the urge. :-)

Seeking photos and videos

Please, please, please send in all photos and videos you have from any of the Rivanna River Ragatta Races. See the previous post (below) to see where to send them.

2009 Regatta photos

OK, Paci to Pearls in her comment below made a good point about Regatta photos. Not everyone in the world is on Facebook nor necessarily wants to join Facebook so.... we coerced a gracious member into donating some server space to host photos from the event.

Please keep in mind that most of us paddle in the event so we do not take the pictures and there is no roving photographer for the event. This means that we completely rely on others to share their photos with us.

If you have photos from either this year's regatta or from any of the previous years', please send them to 'regatta [at] deervinehollow [dot] com', label them with the year they were taken and we will do our best to make them all available publicly.

Again, 2009 photos are found here.

2009 Official Race Results

The weather cooperated this past Saturday and the water was at safe levels so the 4th annual Rivanna River Regatta & Races went off without a hitch.

The official winners are:

Open Class Solo: Dave Segars; Time 48:04 (winner for the 3rd consecutive year)
Open Class Dual: Dave Thomas/Conny Roussos; Time 50:41
Parent-Child: Dave & Ben Dolak; Time 55:07 (winner for the 3rd consecutive year)
Under Age 14: Casey Culp; Time 4:06


Winners of the 2009 Rivanna River Regatta & Races with Race Coordinator, Merrill Bishop



Official results and times

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this year's event a success! We had a total of 22 boats and posted record times.

Be sure to join the Rivanna River Regatta group on Facebook to stay in touch with other local paddlers year-round to organize trips, swap gear, talk paddling and just plain stay involved with the Charlottesville area paddling community. We also ask that everyone who took photos and video of the event please upload to the Facebook group.

Tentative date for the 2010 Races: May 8, 2010

News from the race coordinator...

"Rivanna is coming down nicely, We are a GO for tomorrow.

We are going for it even if we get some more rain. The river is back to about 2-3 ft. above normal spring flow as of 11:30 am at Darden Towe and I'll be watching in the morning about the Under Age 14 race but I think we should set up for it [and assume it will happen also unless conditions change tonight and/or in the morning]."
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Watch this space for any updates overnight or in the morning. A simple text message from a cell phone on the river will update this site in near real-time.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in the morning! There are reports of people coming from Lynchburgh, Richmond and areas in between. If you plan on joining us please leave a comment to this message so we have a rough idea of how many to expect.