Once a fringe river sport relegated to natural anomalies like the Snake River’s Lunch Counter wave, there’s no doubt river surfing has gone mainstream. Thanks to advances in whitewater park engineering, human-made surf waves have popped up across the West, from Cascade, Idaho, to Salida’s celebrated Scout 2.0 wave on the Arkansas River, which is surfable even at low flows.
Now a group of local river surfers is hoping to bring a wave like that to the Animas River in Durango.
“We’re trying to raise funds for a feasibility study to see if a modern surf wave could be created on the Animas in or around Durango,” Amanda Kiessel, founder of the newly formed Animas River Surfers, said.
Although there are existing surfable waves in the Whitewater Park at Santa Rita, notably Corner Pocket and Ponderosa, Kiessel said conditions are not always ideal. These waves peter out for board surfing at lower flows, become extra spicy for surfers at higher flows and are not exactly kid-friendly. In addition to contending with an aftermath of potentially nasty holes downriver from the wave, the eddies can be difficult for surfers to navigate as well.
“At high flows, the entry and exit from Corner Pocket is pretty intense,” said Kiessel, who has lived in Durango for 20 years and surfed just as long. “When Corner Pocket is above 3,000 cfs, it’s a pretty meaty swim.”