The Gorge Race week begins this Friday, July 8, to Saturday, July 16. Over 1,000 paddlers from across the U.S. and around the world will be on the river. It promises to be a fun-filled week of competition and camaraderie—good old-fashioned ‘ohana!
Six-man races are Saturday, July 9, and Downwind Champs single-craft races will begin Monday, July 11. Racers will paddle downwind on a course where winds blowing from the west meet a river running east, a unique paddling experience. “It’s a real river phenomenon,” says Val Stepanchuk, director of The Gorge Canoe Club. “The river makes you work and teaches you to surf.”
A big part of the event is a raffle for a new ARE Tahiti V1 Marara Hybrid outrigger, courtesy of ARE Outrigger World, ARE Tahiti’s exclusive distributor for North America and Hawaii. Get your raffle tickets at bit.ly/2022GorgeRaceRaffle. The drawing will take place at the end of the afternoon of the mid-week races, with the fund-raiser benefiting the newly formed Gorge Outrigger Canoe Club. ARE Outrigger World will also have the rudderless V1s for rent and for sale plus the OC1 Mana, with rudder, to rent.
For more information on the race, get all the details, schedules, and registration requirements at: thegorgerace.com. For more information on ARE Outrigger World, visit: areoutriggerworld.com
