Tamihi Five-0 - Open Canoe Slalom

Chilliwack River, BC

September 19-20, 2009

September 18-19, 2010  ~ 3rd annual ~

Aloha!  Welcome to the Tamihi Five-0

The Tamihi Five-0 is a fun whitewater slalom race for open canoes.  "Five-0" stands for fifty, meaning 50 seconds, which is the time penalty for missing a gate!   (And missing gates is part of recreational racing.) The Five-0 is a social event for whitewater canoeists in the Vancouver region to come together and have some fun.  Trying the slalom gates is a fun way to challenge yourself.  It will really improve your paddling skills!  Whitewater canoeists - advanced paddlers and those who dabble with whitewater on the odd weekend - can test their skills on this class II+ race course.  Whitewater skills and equipment are required, a sense of humour is recommended.  Bring your family and friends. Paddle tandem and solo and compete for King or Queen of the River!

Sept. 18-19th, 2010 is the 3rd annual!  This is not a race where you'll find lots of trained racers.  It's an event where you'll mostly find "normal" river-runners just having some fun and testing their skills against the slalom gates.  Experienced paddlers can try to have a fast, clean run; newer paddlers may decide to skip a gate or two, and that's OK!

The Tamihi Five-0 is organized by volunteers, many from the Beaver Canoe Club, with the generous help of the real slalom racers from the Chilliwack Centre of Excellence (CCE).

The Chilliwack racers maintain the slalom course at Tamihi Rapid, where many local, national and international slalom events are held.  Although many open boaters usually don't run Tamihi, water levels in mid-September make the course (which avoids the difficult top half of the rapid) runnable for intermediate whitewater canoeists - just in case, the water is at its "warmest", and bring a throwrope!! 

The main challenge is in making the gates, not paddling the whitewater, but proper whitewater equipment is required and you need to be handle your canoe precisely in class II rapids.

Slalom Clinic - 2010 TBD

Thank you Paul Saini for coordinating in 2009 and to Ryan Mader for instructing.  

Details for the clinic are available here.  Plus, you can check out these tips and links.