Potomac Whitewater Festival 2011

The 2011 Potomac Whitewater Festival ran smoothly and safely and created lots of smiles on water and on shore, alike! We were handed a gift of great weather to which our event leaders saw awesome runs, enthusiastic participation, much-appreciated sponsorship, and partnerships with the National Park Service, Fairfax and Montgomery Counties and the US Park Police, river conservation colleagues and Bretton Woods Recreation Area. Best of all, our volunteer leaders made it all work darn smoothly: Ashley, Bill, Fern, Ginny, Jason, James, Jen, Jim, John, Julie, Koji, Miki, Nathan, Ned, Peter, Sandrine, Scott, Steve, Tom, Tom, Vicki, and Whit. When you see one of these stellar citizens, give them a shout out!

We thank Isaac at the Washington Post for a terrific snapshot of the river safety program, Great Falls Race and the event.

The event celebrates the Potomac River, and our ability to enjoy it. Help us continue to support and protect American Whitewater’s work regarding access to public lands by attending and helping out with the festival.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Potomac Whitewater Festival!

Interested in learning to kayak?
Check out our Learn to Paddle page

The Potomac Whitewater Festival is an annual fund raising event that celebrates the Potomac River.

The festival's most dramatic and dazzling event is the Great Falls Race. This downriver race is a quick, adrenaline-packed descent of 60 vertical feet through the Potomac's spectacular class V+ Great Falls. Other festival events include freestyle, wave surfing, and squirt boat competitions, beginner whitewater clinics, attainment, slalom, and boatercross races, and much more.

The final heat going through the streamers in the 2005 Great Falls Race. Photo courtesy of Bob Leverton.

For the past nineteen years the festival has been supporting American Whitewater, the nations leading advocate for the protection of our whitewater river resources. AW represents paddlers' interests to restore rivers, eliminate water degradation, improve public land management and protect public access for responsible recreational use.

Online Registration Closed

Submitted by Guest on July 9, 2009 - 09:30.

Online Registration for PotomacFest is now closed. You can register on Saturday or Sunday at the following times and locations. Tickets for the Festival Party may also be purchased at the door on Saturday beginning at 6pm.

The clinic line up is looking great!!

Submitted by Risa Shimoda on July 7, 2009 - 08:10.

The clinics are shaping up and as promised we are going to have a fun line up with something for every category of boater!

Here is what we are looking at so far:

Gear Swap

Submitted by Guest on July 2, 2009 - 15:23.

Money collected for the gear swap is a donation to AW as a part of the fund-raising efforts of PoFest!
You may enter as many non-boat items as you want for a total of $5.
You may enter as many boats as you want. The cost will be $10 per boat.

Nate and Tom could use a few good folks.

Submitted by Nathan on July 1, 2009 - 11:32.

We are in need of a few paddlers to help us conduct The Falls Race. Jobs needed would be timers and starters and a few solid safety folks. Timers and starters need to have some solid Class 4 skills to get to the timing sites. Safety paddlers need to paddle Class V, have good rope skills, and be very sure footed.

Slalom Racing Clinic

Fast and clean? Come find out at the Feeder Canal at Lock 6 for a clinic open to all ages and all boats. Get some expert coaching, check out gear and boats, and take some timed runs. This is not a competition, just a chance to learn a little more about how slalom can make everyone a better paddler...and it's fun!