It was a truly record setting year for Colorado’s Front Range Paddle Association, both in terms of the number of participants and the level of performance that the athletes of the FRPA exhibited throughout the year. Over the course of 2005 the Front Range Paddle Association saw it’s numbers grow form a modest group of six full time local athletes to over 22 racers in less than six months.  Not only did the FRPA add a prodigious number of athletes to its regular roster, but also those athletes performed spectacularly over the course of the racing season.  Of the over 19 races that the FRPA athletes participated in, 83 medals were awarded. These medals were awarded in every class, event, and age group that the world of whitewater racing has to offer.  Of the 83 medals won 37 of them were gold, 27 were silver and 19 of them were bronze, constituting not only a record performance for the FRPA, but a record for overall performance for any club in the nation.

       As with any sport one of the keys to success is getting the ball rolling early.  For the FRPA the 2005 racing season was begun in much the same way as it has been for the last couple of years.  The difference this time was that the number of athletes invited to the very first race of the year, the Southwest Team Trial Qualifier in Austin Texas was greatly increased, and included athletes from around Colorado. Little did the FRPA know that the inclusion of athletes from other parts of Colorado and eventually from around the US and other countries would be the secret formula for a record-breaking 2005. With the first race of the season under their belts the FRPA athletes set their sights on the US National circuit, competing in nearly every national level race that the country had to offer. Throughout the course of their mind numbing racing and training schedule the members of the FRPA enjoyed a number of achievements that would prove to be firsts for the young racing club.  The FRPA placed its first paddlers on the US Senior National Team. These athletes or rather boat would later compete in the PAN American Championships and become ranked 33ed in the world for two-man canoe. The athletes of the Front Range Paddle Association alto took gold and many other medals in the 2005 Wildwater National Championships. The FRPA also enjoyed a number of triumphs on the Junior National racing circuit.  They clinched the Junior Olympic male, female, and team rivermister award, an award given to those athletes and the team who place highest overall in all of the Junior Olympic events. The Athletes of the FRPA also swept many of the US Cup races and at times the athletes of the FRPA comprised some 40% of the competition field

  While there ware many memorable performances by the FRPA athletes in local, national, and international competitions, the unquestionable highlight of 2005 for the FRPA was its High Performance Summer Camp.  This six week camp of training and racing brought together 20 junior athletes from around the US and Canada. The FRPA athletes and their three coaches headed by Chris Wiegand set out to train, race, camp, and drive for six weeks around the US and Canada. The FRPA High Performance Summer Camp was a camp centered on the Olympic ideals of excellence, and sportsmanship. The athletes who participated in the camp were treated to some of the worlds best rivers, and a training schedule designed to not only hone their whitewater skills, but their overall physical fitness, mental health, and sense of companionship with the members of the camp.  The High Performance camp included extensive discussion and classroom time focused on the essence of sport and the role of the responsible athlete and coach.  Nearly all of these wonderfully in depth classroom sessions were done by fire light in the back woods of the FRPA’s remote training sights.  While much of the camp was centered on the honing of whitewater skills, the camp also provided its athletes with a plethora of fun activities.  The FRPA athletes enjoyed hikes and runs through the wilderness of Canada and Idaho, many trips to a hot spring perched on the side of a mountain, obstacle courses where the athletes worked as a team to complete challenging ropes courses, the visiting of past Olympic sites, and one of the highlights of the trip, attending the Calgary Stampede and celebrating Alberta’s 100th anniversary.

   Week one of the Camp was spent in the mountains of Idaho where the FRPA athletes became accustom to their rigorous training schedule and began to work together to form a group of athletes striving for excellence in every aspect of their daily lives.  The FRPA then packed up and moved for the first of five times to a beautiful whitewater slalom course in Alberta Canada.  It was at this course that the true colors of the FRPA Camp members began to shine through.  The athletes began to make giant leaps in not only their Paddle performance but in their daily activity’s.  Everything from the cooking of meals to the cleaning of camp was performed with an enthusiasm and level of excellence that was infectious for all of the members of the camp.  After nearly two weeks spent in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies the Camp was moved again across the vast Canadian plane and back south into the FRPA’s home country. On this move the FRPA’s destination was Duluth Minnesota, where the Athletes were to participate in their first races since beginning the camp.  Once the FRPA High Performance Summer camp was back in the US and began it’s intense three week schedule of racing, it was clear that all of the training and hard work that the athletes had put into their training was paying off.  From Duluth, MN. the camp travels to Wausau Wisconsin; then on to Southbend Ind. for the Junior Olympics, the grand finally of the Summer Camp.  The FRPA placed athletes in all of these races, in every age group, and in every event, constituting one hell of a finish to the Camp.  It was then time for the Athletes of the Front Range Paddle Associations High Performance Summer Camp to return home, and enjoy a little time off before the last races of the season which would be the PAN American Championships and the US National Championships, which were to be held in the Kern River valley in the mountains of southern California.

   The Athletes of the FRPA approached the last race of the year with the same sense of confidence and force of numbers that they had presented throughout the rest of the 2005 season.  The PAN American Championship saw FRPA athletes ranked high in this first international slalom race, and clinch a place on the podium with a silver medal in the US National Championships. With the conclusion of these two races the FRPA 2005 racing season ended, and many of the FRPA athletes remarked that it flew by so fast that they were now sad that it had ended. From California athletes of the Front Range Paddle Association returned home to begin school, have a few weeks of well deserved rest and in time to begin their off season training and preparations for the next year, which looks to be even more of a success then this record breaking 2005.

While this was a truly wonderful year for the Front Range Paddle Association and its athletes, there were as there always are many hardships on the road to success.  The FRPA logged some 32,406 Miles of driving, consumed 8,106 gallons of gas and had to shell out over 11,000$ in rental vehicle costs alone. While the FRPA was shattering records on the racecourse, they were also shattering team leaders pocket books with record costs and unforeseen costs indicative of the variable nature of the sport when helping 20 teenagers persue their dreams of athletic excellence.

There is no doubt that 2005 was an incredible year for the Front Range Paddle Association and its athletes.  The performance levels, the growth of the program and the unforgettable experiences will make 2005 a year that will never be forgotten by those who saw all of its monumental moments.  But now 2005 is gone and the members of the Front Range Paddle Association have their sights trained on 2006, with higher goals, and higher hopes.  The members of the Front Range Paddle Association will continue to make history as a club and for the sport.

Both the athletes and the coaches are looking forward to new places and experiences as they hope to add another chapter and another record-breaking year to the Front Range Paddle Association growing history and list of accomplishments.    

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