Pocket Wave 2.0 Meeting Report

Thursday evening August 17th, 2023, the city of Buena Vista held a meeting to update the public on the status of the reconstruction of Pocket Wave (aka Pocket Wave 2.0). Below are bullet points.

MEETING NOTES:

• Meeting location was held at the BV community center and was attended by 20 or so people, mostly locals to BV of surfers along with some from the rafting/boating business community. Two of us were there from Denver (me and Mark DeNittis) and Josh and Mandi Underwood were there from Summit County. Attending on live stream were about 10 people with 1/2 from Metro-Denver including Eric Halborg, Ward Baker, Matthew Horvat, and others.
• The meeting was lead by Earl Richmond, BV Recreation Specialist Projects Manager and an avid river surfer. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes.
• Mike Harvey was streaming in as the lead for Recreation Engineering & Planning (REP) who are building Pocket Wave 2.0. REP and Mike Harvey did Scout Wave 2.0. Mike gave an overview of the pending build of Pocket Wave 2.0 and its challenges.
• Mike explained that Pocket Wave 2.0 will be similar but not exactly like Scout due to river topography and lower flows in BV and thus will be a bit smaller than Scout. The wave should have a similar cfs range as Scout.
• Vibe was definitely “for and by the locals” as the wave is hoped by the locals to take the over-crowding off of the Staircase Wave with people going down to surf the re-constructed Pocket Wave that used to only work briefly during high flow season.
• The US Army Corp permit of time to build was August 21, 2023 to October 2023; but higher flows that normally end with the VFMP on Aug 16th each year, has been superseded by extra “project release” water (that by the way is from the western slope sent to the front range farmers and municipalities via the Arkansas River) at higher flows until Sept 6th. This means an extended surf season for Scout this year but has also delayed the Pocket Wave 2.0 construction start by three critical weeks, putting construction that was to completed by October in a bind. BV is trying to get an extension for building permit time before fish eggs settled in the river are impacted by construction.
• Appears the total funding has been secured by the city of BV and private donations; however, delays of the project if not completed by October and/or this year could drive up costs. Note, Colored River Surfing Association (CRSA) previously donated $600 to Pocket Wave 2.0… Donations are still being accepted at https://www.gofundme.com/f/pocket-wave-2-buena-vista-colorado-whitewater
• There is a possibility that construction might have to happen in the winter but there are winter snow melt flows that could prohibit construction.
• There is an outside chance the project might get pushed to next fall in 2024.
• Question was posed about positive economic impact to BV based on economic impact of Scout Wave 2.0 popularity for Salida. Mike Harvey said that no such analysis has been done yet for the economic impact by Scout Wave 2.0 but they might be able to see proof of financial gains on upcoming business sales tax reports.
• The local BV surf community brought up some safety concerns about proper eddy’s but the design does account for good eddy service.
• The local surfers also mentioned that the drop down river from Pocket 2.0 and rapids down river from that are no joke. For example it was said, “if you lose your board below Pocket Wave, it is not worth your safety (life) to chase after it“.
• The city plans to put up signage describing how to safely surf Pocket 2.0.
• We suggested video’s similar to the “how to surf the Bend wave” as a best practice for educating the surfers for Pocket 2.0. We also suggested that the Pocket Wave 2.0 safety video(s) be made in honor of Michael James who perished from flush drowning in 2019 while surfing Staircase Wave.
• The meeting only briefly mentioned the pfd controversy currently happening at Scout requiring Coast Guard Approved PFD’s. Matter of fact, the issue was completely side stepped….
• The same CPW Ranger who was at Scout the other weekend educating people about the pfd laws/rules was also at the Pocket Wave meeting. I had a side conversation with him and he made it known that he is an avid kayaker whose love for the river is why he works for CPW. He also mentioned that CPW AHRA upper management will be working with the river surfing community about compliance with the PFD laws. This means that meeting will be had later with CPW on if any lenience can be afforded to river surfing or not when it comes to CGA PFD laws.

IMPRESSIONS FROM THE MEETING

• The BV city leadership and local surf community are very stoked and motivated to get Pocket Wave 2.0 completed and as soon as possible. We are cheering Mike Harvey and BV along the way but understand the hurdles ahead of: time, permit extension, water flows, and unknowns.
• The total cost of Pocket Wave 2.0 is less than $300k. Compare that to well over a million dollars to build a similar wave any other place in Colorado or the nation. BV like Salida has locally vested river wave builders and construction company owners who are working at cut rates. This in itself is incredible and probably would never happen in any other place in the US.
• River surfing has and is quickly growing statewide and worldwide but the reality is that river surfing is a small part of the Northern Arkansas River recreation area (BV to Salida) that is the most busiest and popular river recreation area for boating and fishing in the world.
• The river surfing community will have to keep it in mind that unlike those who have come up to river surfing with a kayak background, there will be differences on how to react to such things as pfd rules, leashes, helmets, etc. The same goes for those who are used to surfing green faced waves with norms on how to properly share the wave on any given day when it comes to time spent surfing ones turn on the wave or how to equitably share the river from “the long side” vs “the short side” for example.
• Reality is from our perspective: “Build it, and they will come“. In other words, if Scout Wave 2.0 is any indication, Pocket Wave 2.0 will also be a destination wave for out-of-towner river surfers from all over the state and beyond. Crowds will surely ensue Pocket Wave 2.0. This will be another challenge to BV besides getting Pocket Wave 2.0 built; however, lessons can be learned from Scout as to the economic benefits and being a model for other places such as BV, Pueblo, Gunnison, etc. to follow suit on why to build clean green faced standing waves that is rapidly growing river surfing (pun intended).
• Another challenge for BV with Pocket Wave 2.0 is the dangers that lurks very close downriver in a stretch of the river with dangerous rapids.
• BV is going to have to be proactive in educating all river surfers (not just the citizens of BV) on when to safely surf Pocket Wave 2.0, how to surf it, how to survive it, and when it is an expert only or even don’t surf it wave. Just as Bend, OR at the Bend Wave had to face the fatality of a 17 year old river surfer last year and adjust to make their wave safe both with physical repairs and a paradigm shift of river surfing culture change (for example Bend has banned leashes); it is high time that the death of Michael James in 2019 in that very same area below Pocket Wave needs to examined and learned from in how Pocket Wave 2.0 will be safely surfed, along with public education. The very last thing BV and river surfing needs is another fatality.
• If any group of people can pull off a successful Pocket Wave 2.0 it is the city of BV, its citizens, and Mike Harvey and his team at REP.

The above notes and impressions are from The Denver Surf Reports point of view. Comments will be opened for any discussions or questions we can answer or hopefully get answered.

LBK