The main reservoir release gate will remain at 110 cfs, and the fish hatchery will remain at 10 cfs today, Friday, July 26, 2024.
RRP: 140cfs+/- Sixx was surfed last night at a tad bit higher flow but from the pole cam pics it didn’t look all that dynamic and might be flatter today; though, surf is surf even when just barely eking out turns. Not much hope for Sixx today but I’d say take a look at Chiclets and give that wave a try if you are looking to beat the extremely hot weather by jumping in the river.
Pueblo: 750cfs+/- Looking like there was a cfs downward drop from the Pueblo Dam, so just guessing here on how much native flow is in the river and how it will impact the P-town new wave. So going with 750cfs as a wild guess for rest of the day.
Word is, the new wave is real good at 700cfs up and we don’t even know how low the flow can be surfed.
Here is a link to keep an eye on the MOFAT gauge downriver from the whitewater parks- https://dwr.state.co.us/Tools/Stations/ARKMOFCO?params=DISCHRG
Though to give you an idea how good P-town new wave can be; check out the below vid screen grab of one of my personal favorite river surfers, “One-man-crowd Tony” aka “Twenty-turn Tony”, who was crushing the P-town new wave last night at 950cfs.
Scout: 580cfs+/- Wave is still up and surfing real good on their live cam that needs an upgrade.
The AHRA water manager is working hard to try to keep the target VFMP flow going to Aug 15th.
Salida really needs to get a closer live cam position on the Scout Wave similar to that of the Glenwood Wave cam or even the Cañon City Wave cam. Judge for yourself..
G-wood Wave cam- https://coloradowebcam.net/camera/glenwood-kayak-park-wave-zoom-webcam
Cañon City Wave cam- https://www.canoncity.org/563/Play-Wave-Camera
Scout Wave cam- https://coloradowebcam.net/camera/salida-co-lower-wave-arkansas-river-zoom-tenderfoot-mt
River Surfing Tip: Is it “cfs” or “cfm” or “cms”?
All three are a measurement of volume and speed of water flowing past a certain spot such as a fixed gauge on a river. In the State of Colorado the river gauges we watch to know when to go river surfing is represented in “cfs” that stands for “cubic feet per second” and equates to 7.48 gallons per second. Conversely, “cfm” is the abbreviation for cubic feet per minute. And “cms” is cubic meters per second for our Canadian friends. So we don’t really refer to our river flows in “cfm” or “cms” and instead locally use “cfs”.
Here is the calculation for “cfs”…
river width × depth × speed (flow and gradient) = CFS
And here is a video on how to field calculate cfs in a stream/river without a gauge. Something maybe that can be done at low flow to see how close you can calculate the cfs for example between Benni’s and Chiclets as compared to the Union gauge…. https://youtu.be/W1lUdxE5BGU?si=TYYslbjeB76DGVAP
We once tried field calculating cfs at Dave’s Wave since the closest gauge is three hours down river but we gave up and went surfing instead.
Any river surfing science teachers out there looking for some school year projects? Hit me up for flow model project ideas in the classroom.
Go find some surf before the season ends!
LBK
The Denver Surf Report 