2011 IRF World Rafting Champs
The 2011 IRF World Rafting Champs is to be an R6 (six-man raft) event. And the calls over the last few years have been to get back to really big water in remote areas which is what the original Project Raft and Camel White Water Challenge were about. As these were the birthing places of today’s World Rafting Champs the IRF Sport & Competition Committee heeded this call when assessing the bids that came in. This Committee is made up of 13 experienced rafters and event organisers who are selected every two years by the members of the IRF.
Once again the bids were of a high quality which is very encouraging for the growth of the sport. Italy’s bid was for the Noce River in the Val di Sole/Trentino region, Costa Rica’s bid was for the General River in the San Isidro del General area and Slovenia’s bid was for the Soča River near Bovec.
The final decision went in favour of Costa Rica and the General River.
The location of the WRC on the artificial course in Zoetermeer, Netherlands in 2010, and the 2011 location of the Rio General in Costa Rica encapsulates the two extremes of where rafting is heading at the moment – the easy to access, control and setup locations of the smaller volume rivers which are often ideal for the R4 (four-man rafts) and the less accessible, harder to control and setup locations of the big volume rivers which are often more suitable for R6 events. The latter locations are also often on rivers that are more remote giving a heightened sense of adventure to the event.
The IRF thanks Italy and Slovenia for their bids and their commitment to rafting in general.
--- IRF BOD
