Sneak Peek of the Week
Surf Salida
20,000
Tally of cellphone pings from the Salida river park so far this summer, compared with 9,000 last summer
SALIDA — Sarina Perret takes a seat on a concrete block next to the tall, glassy wave on the Arkansas River. A friend holds the nose of her surfboard as she positions her feet and begins to stand up. She glides across the wave, carving smooth turns on the flowing wedge of green water. The line of waiting surfers cheer.
“You are a surfer!” someone yells as she returns to the line of wetsuited board riders at the Scout Wave on the Arkansas River.
It’s Perret’s first day on the Scout Wave. This is her first season river surfing.
“I grew up in Colorado so it’s not like I grew up saying ‘I want to be a surfer.’ I mean I watched surfing on movies but that was it,” says Perret, a physical therapist in Evergreen. “It’s so cool to be part of the river surfing culture that has exploded in Colorado in the last few years. Everyone is so supportive. It’s such a great sport.”
There are about a dozen surfers in line at the Scout Wave on this Monday morning. Over the weekend, several dozen waited for their turn. Many surfers haul battery-operated lights to the banks of the Salida whitewater park and carve the Scout Wave through the night.
“It is the best river wave in the world. Period,” says Denver musician Eric Halborg, who has spent several weeks camping and staying in hotels this summer so he can spend a few hours a day surfing Salida. His favorite time: 5 a.m., under the lights “when the line is shortest.”
The Salida Whitewater Park was conceived in 1999 by locals Mike Harvey, Ray Kitson, Larry Lowry and Jerry Mallet, who eventually recruited Recreation Engineering and Planning, the pioneer of Colorado river park designs, to build a river park that has transformed Salida and inspired dozens of other communities.
“When they decided to turn and face the river instead of turning our backs to it like everyone had done for the last 100 years, that’s when everything changed,” said Mike “Diesel” Post, the head of Salida’s parks and recreation department and former principal at the high school in Buena Vista.
Post is standing amid the wave riders, whose sharp heel-side carves throw water high up the banks. He’s with Recreation Engineering and Planning’s design engineers Harvey and Spencer Lacy, whose father Gary started the company in the 1980s.
Post is getting a debrief about the season so far. Last year, Harvey and Lacy scrambled through June and July to adjust the Scout Wave as the Arkansas River flows peaked. They used a crane to plop 4,000-pound sacks of sand into the river as their wave turned into a violent, boat-flipping hole when the river peaked above 1,000 cubic feet per second.
This year, high flows on the Arkansas River in Salida were well above 4,000 cfs. After an offseason of adjustments with giant concrete blocks and rocks — and the reworking of a river-left boat chute for smaller rafts and paddlers in kayakers and duckies who want to avoid the turbulent high-water hole, the Scout Wave was not nearly as risky.
Last year, when no one surfed the Scout Wave for two months during peak flows, the city counted 9,000 people with mobile phones on the banks of the surf feature. So far this summer, there have been 20,000 cellphone pings from the banks. On a Monday morning before 10 a.m., guided anglers and commercial rafters floated through the wave. Upstream, very young kids on boogie boards surfed the Kindergarten Wave under the watchful eye of moms standing on shore. Visitors donned life jackets from a riverside loaner station and swam near the kayak hole.
And a growing crowd of board-riders flocked to the Scout Wave 2.0. The wave is the equivalent of a ski area for a mountain town, with people coming from far away to play. It was only a few decades ago that Riverside Park had a long, high wall that kept people away from the rushing Arkansas.
“We are a river town now. We are about as OG of a river town as it gets. This has been a whitewater park for 25 years … kind of a kayaker surf spot we called a whitewater park,” Post said. “But eight years ago we started seeing people on tubes, people in little boats and stand-up paddle boards and all of the sudden it became a park. And now with this wave, it’s all coming together in such a beautiful way that everyone can see and recognize.”
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In Their Words
Boulder courts Sundance Film Festival
No one is really talking publicly right now as Boulder ramps up its bid to host the Sundance Festival starting in 2027.
That’s to be expected as the city competes against five others — Atlanta, Cincinnati, Santa Fe, and Louisville, Kentucky, and a combined bid from the festival’s 40-year host Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.
We do know that the city of Boulder, the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Boulder Chamber, the University of Colorado and the Stanley Hotel’s planned film center in Estes Park are part of the bid. All the accommodations in Boulder are on the table for the festival, a representative from the chamber said, including the new 250-room Limelight hotel and conference center under construction by Aspen One, the new name for the Aspen Skiing Co.
Boulder is expecting a tour of the city with festival organizers from the Sundance Institute in the next few weeks. The chamber representative said the city plans to tout sustainability, open spaces and accessibility, with an emphasis on easy travel on paths and public transit.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission in June gave the Boulder group $1.5 million to help craft its proposal to host the Sundance Festival for 10 years starting in 2027. In May, the Stanley Hotel hosted the Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab, which was landed with about $300,000 in state funding. Colorado lawmakers in May modified a grant program that would allow the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority to buy the Stanley Hotel and shepherd the construction of the Stanley Film Center, which the state has approved for as much as $46.4 million in sales tax incentives over 30 years.
All this maneuvering by Colorado comes as Park City businesses and locals grumble about traffic from the 10-day, 87,000-attendee Sundance Film Festival in the middle of ski season in a Utah county that hosts 2.8 million skier visits a year.
Colorado is losing ground in the national fight to land movie-makers. Gov. Jared Polis in June signed legislation that expands funding for film, television and commercial productions in the state. But the $5 million a year in refundable tax credits from Colorado pales in comparison to massive incentives dangled by neighboring states.
The hope is that hosting the Sundance Festival could spark the state’s film industry and elevate Colorado as a viable host for media makers.
“It’s been unfortunate to watch over the years other states like New Mexico, Georgia and several other states develop incentives and really work hard to entice the film industry to come shoot in their states while Colorado has done very little,” said Kent Harvey, a 30-year cinematographer based in Denver who goes to New Mexico and Georgia to work on big-budget Hollywood films like “Logan” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
When Harvey tells high-profile actors and producers that he lives in Colorado, they always ask him, “Why don’t we make these films in Colorado? I would much rather be doing this in Colorado,” he said. “We could actually enjoy our time off in the mountains and be able to get back to LA in less time.”
Harvey is frustrated to see tax incentives and credits given to other industries that do not accurately reflect Colorado. He points to the Colorado Economic Development Commission’s recent approval of $4.6 million in tax incentives for tobacco company Philip Morris International to open a $600 million facility in Aurora that makes nicotine pouches.
“Is this in the best interest of Coloradans and especially our youth?” Harvey said. “Let’s bring an industry that will employ thousands of film crew members, generate billions in tax revenue dollars just as Georgia and New Mexico have done over the last several years and help continue to drive tourism to the state.”
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Breaking Trail
Three Durango mountain bikers competing in Paris Summer Games
5
Durango mountain bikers who have competed in every Summer Olympics since mountain biking was added in 1996
Three of the four U.S. mountain bikers competing in the Paris Olympics on Sunday — Christopher Blevins, Riley Amos and Savilia Blunk — are from Durango, a town of 19,000 that has fielded a knobby-tired bike racer in every Olympic contest since the sport was added in 1996.
“It means a lot to carry on that legacy,” Blevins told Sun freelancer Ryan Simonovich. (Bummed about this, but Chris is no relation to this Sun reporter.)
Counting Fort Collins’ Olivia Cummins in the women’s Team Pursuit and Boulder’s Taylor Knibb competing in the women’s time trial cycling race, Colorado’s five cyclists number the same as Colorado runners among the 26 Centennial State athletes competing in Paris.
The rich cycling history in Durango — where nearby Purgatory ski area hosted the first mountain bike World Championships in 1990 — fosters exceptional pedalers.
The 26-year-old Blevins began racking up national titles as a BMX racer before the age of 10. When he switched to mountain bikes with the esteemed Durango Devo program, the crowns kept coming. In April, a dramatic last-lap attack led him to a World Cup victory in Brazil, setting the stage for his second Olympics.
“Durango has meant everything to my success and trajectory on the bike,” Blevins told Simonovich as he made his final preparations for the Games. “Result-wise and where I am as an Olympian but also just how much I love the bike. I think that’s what I’m most proud of and what Durango’s provided.”
The 25-year-old Blunk launched her cycling career with the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team.
“Coming from a small town where mountain biking wasn’t an everyday sport, to Durango, where overnight I was surrounded by talented riders and people pushing me to become better, I improved so much as a rider just by having people to train and ride with that both challenged me and gave me confidence,” Blunk said.
Amos, 22, has been dominating the World Cup U23 category for several years and, like Blevins and Blunk, credits Durango’s fiery cycling community for his trajectory on the bike.
“My community is the reason I’m here,” Amos wrote in a recent Instagram post. “The amount of fun I’ve had growing up exploring the outdoors on my bike with my best friends showed me what life is about. I had so many cycling mentors growing up, and I constantly strive to take a small piece from their process and incorporate it into myself. I’ve always had a stronger wheel to chase, and I’ve always lived to surprise those better than me.”
And speaking of the Olympics, did everyone see that Utah is getting the Winter Games in 2034? Not a surprising announcement, of course, considering the state was the only contender for the winter show a decade from now. Alterra Mountain Co. will have its $3.2 billion expansion at Deer Valley online in time for moguls and aerials contests. Vail Resorts will be hosting slopestyle and halfpipe events at Park City Mountain Resort. And the Holding family will have ski racing at its Snowbasin hill in Ogden. Salt Lake City will be the hub. We have a decade to go, but those last five years will be a frenzy of marketing mayhem pitting skiing’s largest resort operators and Colorado likely angling to keep its winter scene in the limelight as Utah glows Olympic.
>> Click over to The Sun on Friday to read Ryan’s story
The Guide
Mesa County counters 400,000-acre Dolores River national monument plan with plan to protect 30,000 acres around the river
29,806
Acres around the northern stretch of the Dolores River that should be protected under a plan offered by Mesa County, which compared to 391,000 acres of increased protection under a proposal for a national monument around the Dolores River
Mesa County has countered the call for a national monument around the Dolores River with plans for a much smaller national conservation area.
The Dolores Canyons National Conservation Area would increase protections on 29,806 acres around the Dolores River in both Mesa and Montrose counties. The proposal for a national monument around the river in the two counties calls for increased protection on 391,000 acres along the river.
Mesa County commissioners in May adopted a resolution opposing the national monument plan, which was crafted by river and environmental advocates asking President Joe Biden to use the Antiquities Act to create the Dolores Canyons National Monument. The commissioners in May pointed to existing protections on federally managed land around the river and questioned how additional layers of protection might impact mining, logging and grazing as well the region’s ability to handle increased visitation.
The national conservation area proposal released Tuesday by Mesa County maintains existing water, and grazing rights while protecting access to “critical minerals necessary for meeting energy, carbon and national security goals.” Environmental and river advocacy groups blasted the conservation area plan as “grossly inadequate.”
>> Click over to The Sun on Friday to read this story
Mountain Village voters in June 2025 will decide whether LLCs or trusts get a voice in local elections
1,463
Number of Mountain Village properties owned by LLCs and trusts that could be eligible to vote under a recent proposal
The Mountain Village town council last week approved a ballot measure that could allow limited liability companies and trusts to vote in local elections.
The ballot question in the June 2025 election would allow owners holding properties in LLCs or trusts to designate a person who can vote in Mountain Village elections. LLCs or trusts with evenly shared ownership will get two votes. The town is the only municipality in Colorado that allows non-resident property owners to vote in municipal elections choosing candidates for council, tax regulations and charter amendments.
The council’s referral of the question to voters is not an endorsement of the proposal.
There are 1,100 full-time residents in Mountain Village and 562 registered voters. There are 1,264 properties in the town owned LLCs and 199 owned by trusts. The hope of the ballot measure is to expand voter engagement in local issues as more property owners transfer homes into LLCs and trusts that better protect the asset and smooth estate planning. Right now, only owners of properties who list their homes in their names can vote in Mountain Village elections, regardless of their residency. If voters pass the measure, owners with residential properties in LLCs and trusts will be able to designate a person to vote in local elections.
Mayor Marti Prohaska, during discussion of the ballot measure at last week’s second reading of the proposal, agreed with locals who worried their voices would be overwhelmed by absentee property owners.
Prohaska said the ballot question could make it “possible that our voices will not be heard anymore. She worried that the measure would discourage more working locals from engaging in the town’s politics and leadership.
“We have to have better diversity up here,” she said of the council. “I think it is extremely critical that everyone who is concerned about this and everyone who is passionate continues to engage. At the end of the day, we all need to vote. We need to get our neighbors to vote. We need to talk to our neighbors about running for council.”
Several local residents expressed concern with the measure at recent meetings.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s wrong. It’s un-American,” local resident Leslie Browning told the council.
Local resident Paul Savage said the council should be talking about changes to the town charter that would prohibit non-residents from voting.
“It’s ridiculous that we allow people who don’t live here to vote,” Savage said. “It’s a sacred right and our vote should not be watered down by people who don’t live here.”
If you were going to pick a community in Colorado that might be closest to the issue of non-resident voting, it would be the Town of Keystone, which last year became the state’s newest incorporated municipality.
As a local committee spent many months of public meetings hammering out a town charter for the community at the base of the busy Summit County ski area, voting by nonresident homeowners was “the most contentious issue,” said Keystone Mayor Ken Riley, a first-timer to political office.
The Keystone charter committee studied Mountain Village’s formation in 1995 as a home-rule municipality that grew from a homeowners association. The difference between the two communities is that Keystone had a community of full-time residents who voted in March 2023 to incorporate into a town. Mountain Village was largely a community of second homeowners who were part of an association in the 1990s.
Keystone has about 3,500 property owners and about 900 active voters in a pool of about 1,200 full-time residents. The town charter allows only people who are permanent residents of Keystone to vote in town elections. That’s the same rule for every municipality in Colorado except Mountain Village.
“I guarantee you if we had provided the opportunity for second-home owners to have a vote, there is no way our charter would have passed,” Riley said. “But we did have some significant debates about it.”
Stay tuned for some heated debates and campaigning as Mountain Village considers becoming one of the very few communities in the country that allow LLCs and trusts to vote.
— j
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