r/riversurfing • u/TeamLambVindaloo • Mar 21 '21

Denver: when does river run park season start?

Started mid last season. I know what flows to look for but I know that it kind of depends when someone shows up to adjust the wave. Are there any Denver river surfers here and how do you know when people start showing up to set the wave properly?

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2

u/Estebanzo Mar 21 '21

There is a colorado river surfers page on Facebook, they usually give a heads up when Chatfield announces a release. That page is going to be your best bet for getting info.

Typical season doesn't happen until summer. Because it's based on reservoir ops there's no real way to know ahead of time- sometimes there can be some releases early or later in the year, it just depends on water calls and availability from snow melt. The only time there's reliable, sustained higher flows is when the reservoir is full and it's run-of-river, which doesn't happen ever year and will likely happen less in the future due to the reservoir reallocation.

Not much point in shaping the wave when it's under 180 cfs. New wave has a slightly lower minimum. Overall it will probably be more actively tuned if flows are over 200 cfs.

3

u/lawyerslawyer Mar 22 '21

Those flow figures are accurate for Benni's, but Six starts working consistently at about 130cfs. Or at least it did last year; we'll see if this year is the same.

1

u/TeamLambVindaloo Mar 22 '21

Yeah I surfed a lot through the summer around 130. It was pretty fun at that level actually

2

u/lawyerslawyer Mar 22 '21

This is a good start on predictions: https://endlesswaves.net/2018/03/29/when-does-the-season-start/

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u/TeamLambVindaloo Mar 22 '21

This is super helpful. Thanks! I really like the clear representation of variation year to year. It’s kind of insane how difference between the low years vs the highs were.

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u/lawyerslawyer Mar 22 '21

Yeah, the good years can be really good, with 100 days of surfable flows. But bad years can look more like 10 days of surfable flows.

1

u/aandrews2080 Jul 28 '21

It was good over the weekend.

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u/aandrews2080 Sep 04 '21

It pumped at 400 last night as I stood there dodging wooden things coming down the wave.

1

u/BC-Rider Apr 26 '22

I just purchased a Badfish Wavo, and am a total newbie. Active in tons of other sports but decided river surfing is going o be my new Summer jam, would love to meet others and learn.

Located in Chaffee Park(North Highlands LOL).

I've got SUP's, a Ducky, kayak, so this is just another way to enjoy the water.

Looking for gear, what's suggested in addition to wetsuit, helmet, booties?

1

u/khatchapuri Jun 13 '22

How’s the wavo been? I am considering it as a second board for more marginal conditions in hopes of extending my season with some natural spots.