By Stephen Lynn ~ Crew 300

There’s just two weeks left for pre-registration! We encourage everyone to register early this year. You will save $5 per entrant and you will allow us to better plan for meals, T-shirts, etc. If you are unsure of all your team members, you can still register on-line and make the needed changes at Bull Shoals Wednesday evening. The T-shirts this year look great. There will be two colors available. One is a rust washed color and the other is rose. Our website has been very active lately and has over 16,300 hits to date! Of course we are hoping that translates into many new teams for the 2008 race. We should have new teams from Arkansas this year with Harrison and Mt. View attending. It is also great to hear that Post 8 from Little Rock will be attending. Post 8 brought the largest number of teams to the race in years past, but have not attended in a couple of years. Crews from F l i p p i n , R u s s e l l v i l l e , Pocahontas, and Batesville, Arkansas will be returning this year in addition to crews from Bogalusa and Bush, Louisiana, Duluth, Minnesota and Bryan and Fort Worth, Texas. We have also had reports of new t eams f rom Memph i s

attending, but we haven’t verified that yet. It is our goal to reach 50 teams by 2010, but it would be great to achieve that a bit early. If you are a new team this year, please let us know you are coming in order to help us plan.. A brief email or phone call from each of you would be a great!

The 2008 race will return to the full 120 mile course. For those of you that have never competed in the full 120 mile race, please keep in mind that the final third day is long! The river current normally slows on the last day and the sixth leg Saturday morning covers nearly 21 miles from Sylamore to Dam No. 3. This will be the longest leg of the race and may take slower aluminum teams over 3 hours. The seventh leg is 12 miles between Dam No. 3 and Dam No. 2. This leg has been skipped in the last few years due to construction of hydroelectric generators at the dams. The eighth leg is the final 8 miles from Dam No. 2 to Batesville. The point of all of this is to remind you that you have the option of adding a fifth or sixth paddler to your teams. My experience has been that four person teams (particularly novice teams) tire considerably when the 21 mile paddlers have to return and

paddle again on the last 8 mile leg. Fresh paddlers could help your team’s placing in the race considerably. This would also apply to the first day when there are also 3 legs.

Returning to the full course will also require the portaging of the canoes around Dams No. 3 and No. 2. Each team will be required to carry their canoe to the put-ins located just below the dams. Each of the portages will be about 400 yards in length. The footing is mostly good but care should be exercised around the rip rap. We may also need assistance with portaging the safety boats. Care should also be taken near the dams as water levels are higher than normal this year. The portages around the dams will be discussed in more detail at the Friday night safety/team captain’s meeting.

All of the area lakes which supply water for the White River are still very high. We expect that the dams at Bull Shoals and Norfork will be generating most of the summer. We are expecting fast times for the race this year and it is possible that some of the long held course records may fall.

(Continue on Page 2)

Letter from the Race Director

Scouting and Venturing

June 29, 2008

Volume 08, Issue 2

Schedule of Events 2

Letter from IT Director 2

2008 Pre-Registration Form

5

Inside this issue:

List of Important

Registration Forms

Pre-Registration

Local Tour Permit

National Tour Permit

Medical Form

Step on how to Pre-Register.

1. Visit our website at www.whiterivercanoerace.com. 2. Click the Registration Link at the top of the page. 3. Once you click this link you will be giving two options. The first option is for “Online Registration” and the sec-

ond option is for a “Downloadable Form”. 4. Next you will visit our Privacy Policy. Click Agree if you agree to the terms. 5. Once you have clicked agree. You will then have access to our form. 6. Please make sure all of your fields with the * have the correct information. 7. Once you have finished your first team you must hit Submit for the form to reach us. 8. If you have any addition teams to register please hit Back on your Internet browser and then Reset at either the top

or bottom of the page you just Submitted. The reason we have this setup this way, is so you can print off a copy of your registration form before you clear it. That way you get a copy and so do we.

* If you have any questions, or run into any problems please feel free to contact Robert Latus at 870.799.3690

Letter from the IT Director

Page 2 White River Canoe Race Volume 08, Issue 2

Schedule of Events

July 1 - Last Day to Register with

$5 off.

July 23 - White River Canoe Race

Bull Shoals - Registration

July 24 - White River Canoe Race

Bull Shoals - Norfork

July 25 - White River Canoe Race

Norfork - Allison

July 26 - White River Canoe Race

Allison - Batesville

As George Latus, the Race Host from Crew 320, discussed earlier, we have several new awards for this year’s race. Traveling trophies will be awarded for all Cruising and Aluminum class winner’s except Beginner’s. Novice teams in the Aluminum classes are eligible for the traveling trophies if they have the shortest accumulative time for their class (example, Boy’s Aluminum Novice winners can win the Boy’s Aluminum Traveling Trophy if their

time beats the winning Boy’s Advanced Aluminum team). A Traveling Trophy is kept by the winning team for one year. They are responsible for engraving the trophy with their team’s name and the winning year and returning it to the race. If they are unable to attend the following year, it is their responsibility to ship the trophy to the Race Director or Race Host prior to the race.

We will also add an award for the winner of the Talent Show on Friday

night, so plan ahead! We should have the performing stage back this year at Sylamore Creek Camp.

We are still offering aluminum canoes and paddles for loan to teams needing them. These are available on a first come first serve basis so please contact us soon to reserve your equipment.

If you have any questions about the race, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Cont. Letter from the Race Director

Come and join us in one of the most unique,

challenging, and fun scouting events in the

country. The National Invitational White River

Canoe Race will take you down some of the

most scenic country in America. The race is

an adventure of over a hundred miles from

the heart of the Ozark Mountains near Bull

Shoals Lake to the foothills of Batesville, Ar-

kansas. The event is more than just a race

though. There are many special activities for

everyone.

Race Director Stephen Lynn P.O. Box 99 London, AR 72847 (479) 885-1037

Crew 300- Russellville, AR Email: ozarksjl@centurytel.net

Race Host George Latus P.O. Box 91 Sulphur Rock, AR 72579 (870) 799-3690

Crew 320 - Batesville, AR Email: arlatus1@yahoo.com

We’re on the Web!

www.whiterivercanoerace.com

2007 canoe race had 38 boats racing over 120 miles

White River Canoe Race

Official’s Addresses