Realize most of you are pay-walled off from reading this Denver Post article today but it is the same old regurgitated story we often read about the S Platte River going to be resorted over the next decade(s) from Denver on up to and past Thornton. Unfortunately along with restoration of that stretch of the Platte is also the controversy of obviously planned gentrification of the adjacent neighborhoods to the river.
Sadly once again the metro-Denver river surfers are not offered a spot at the table on the spending plans for the $350 million in federal funds earmarked for the S Platte River. Nor are us surfers even given time to voice our thoughts/ideas on how to clean up and re-wild the S. Platte in such a way that helps the environment, encourages interaction with the river (both tactile and visual interactions), and improvements for recreation in the S Platte River.
Sure in the past, the basically now defunct Colorado River Surfing Association (CRSA) got in a few zoom calls with City of Denver and were able to put a couple of words in for building river waves on the S. Platte River, but for the most part the local river surfers were quickly forgotten by the political royalty and bureaucratic big-heads.
The current DP article did upgrade us local river surfers in the the article and mentions us once (only once) and in the same breath as trout, carp, and kayakers.
Here it is:
“Even now, after decades of revitalization and efforts to stabilize flows, sections of the urban South Platte still smells of decay and waste, and city officials discourage swimming. But cyclists also pedal along miles of paved trails on the riverfront. Kayakers and surfers play in the whitewater. Carp and trout lurk under bridges, while families of ducks paddle along the calmer waters. And strips of green parks border long stretches of the river where, in previous decades, factories spewed sludge and landfills leached pollutants.”
Not sure the kayakers are going to be so jazzed about being put on the same par as river surfing. Don’t think the trout are so hip on being put on the same level as river surfers. And we know the carp hate to “lurk” with us crazy river surfers in the stinky S. Platte River.
So, if you have some sort of pull with the powers-that-be on the planned restorations of the the S Platte River, put a bug in their ear that river surfers should have a permanent spot in the decision making matrix on exactly how the $350 million is going to be utilized.
LBK
PS, the S. Platte River doesn’t really stink all that bad. Just don’t drink the water.
The Denver Surf Report 