First glimpse of the Trinity River project, another man-made water feature, this time in Dallas Texas. 

From Big D Whitewater, The Paddleblog of North Texas.

One year ago, I received a phone call and was invited to Dallas City Hall to meet with officials working on the Trinity River Corridor Project. Myself and 8 other paddlers walked into a conference room. The project manager rolled out a set of blueprints and said, “We’re going to build a whitewater park on the Trinity River.” “When?”, we asked, thinking it was going to be years from now. “Construction will begin in May,” he said. “And it should be completed by December.” I’ve always believed in God, but I didn’t know he was a paddler, too. Because gifts like this don’t fall from Heaven too often in one’s lifetime.

This began a year-long dialogue between the paddlers and the city. Over that time, we’ve developed a productive, symbiotic relationship. Several of us were concerned that nobody was documenting the construction of the wave. We feared that once the structures were under water, no one would see, know or appreciate the scale of the work put into each whitewater feature. So we took it upon ourselves to photograph and film the progress of the wave throughout the summer and fall.

Finally, in December, the temporary dam was removed and the Trinity began to flow over the structures. And it worked! There was still a lot of landscaping work going on and the park doesn’t officially open till March 2011, but we knew we couldn’t wait that long. We had to try it out. So we contacted our friends at the City of Dallas and convinced them to let us take a few test rides. So saddle up your plastic horses, Dallas. Let’s ride. Yee haw!

To read more about whitewater parks check out the Standing Waves article "Growth of a Nation" in the Fall, 2009 issue. 

Read online
Read on iPad/iPhone
Order a print copy
Subscribe

And the feature article "Wave of the Future" in the Early Summer, 2010 issue.

Read online
Read on iPad/iPhone
Order a print copy
Subscribe

You can read back issues of Rapid online through our digital editions, on your iPad through the Rapid Media App and of course you can read it in print.

Don't want to miss another issue? Subscribe NOW and get Rapid delivered right to your door.