The North Fork Championship

The North Fork Championship took place from June 6th-8th in Banks, Idaho on the North Fork of the Payette, one of the craziest rivers out there. Gradient + lots of granite + warm water = one of the sickest rivers ever!

The event is organized by James Byrd and this year featured a long race down the lower three, a BoaterX down S-Turn and a giant slalom down Jacob’s Ladder, one of the best rapids of the river.

The Long Race took place on Thursday, starting at Otter Slide and finishing in Banks, about 15 minutes of some flat and some amazing white water. Having run this sections a couple times I didn’t have my best lines and got surfed in a hole for too long during my race run, so I ended up placing 4th but quite far from first.

Saturday was the big day, we all rode with the bus from Crouch to Jakes and the show started pretty soon. After a warm up run 25 boaters did two runs down jakes trying to go as fast as possible while trying to make all the gates! It was hard, it’s such a powerful rapid and there are many features to stop/spin/surf you…it’s so good though! There was a lot of people watching and it was super nice out so it really was a nice day.

After the event was done we all floated down to Banks, enjoying about 10 more miles of awesome white water!

To my surprise I ended up taking second place on the giant slalom just barely ahead of Rush in 3rd and Louis in 1st! So stoked on the results and the overall event, huge thanks to James and Regan for all their work putting it together and to everyone else who helped out!

After the awards the only thing left to do was have some party Idaho style and wake up to another sunny morning for some more paddling, loving Idaho!

Check out for more at: http://www.northforkchampionship.com

Photos by: Alícia Casas, Colton Stiffler, Galen Volkhausen