A Meeting
of The Tribes
River Surfing is in one of the most exciting times since its earliest days. This summit brings together communities to discuss the current state of river surfing and future of our sport.
Below is the schedule for the event. Please note tickets are required to attend. riversurfsummit.eventbrite.com
Modelled after the Forum Flusswellen (River Wave Forum) in Europe, this meetup event is pulling together wave builders, community builders, and surfers looking to have a beer and share stories with river surfers from other places.
Location:
Bend, Oregon
44.0582° N, 121.3153° W
Bend offers the perfect location for a first meeting of the North American river surf community.
It’s not very often a small group of people get together to change the world. When it happens, an energy radiates through the room and ripples into the lives for years after. This gathering will bring together the people who have a stoke for surfing in their hearts that goes well beyond sandy beaches and salty sun-soaked waves. The relationships formed here will go beyond physical boundaries and unite us in a mission to spread the love of surfing to millions more. The future is in our hands and it’s up to us to shape it.
Meet and Greet
7:00pm Friday, October 6, 2017
Bend Whitewater Park, Green Wave
Meet and surf with river surfers from across North America.
The Friday, Meet and Greet, is free for anyone to attend and not exclusive to ticket holders. People are travelling in from all over so the Meet and Greet brings us all together. This is an informal meetup with no structured discussion or leadership. When you arrive please introduce yourself to the rest of the crew at the wave. If you have something you can bring that will improve the experience of the other surfers please help make the weekend awesome!
River Surf Summit
8:00am - 9:00pm Saturday, October 7, 2017
Bend Parks and Recreation
This event is free for anyone to attend and not exclusive to ticket holders. People are travelling in from all over so the Meet and Greet brings us all together. This is an informal meetup with no structured discussion or leadership. When you arrive please introduce yourself to the rest of the crew at the wave. If you have something you can bring that will improve the experience of the other surfers please help make the weekend awesome!
Morning Registration
and Event Introduction
8:00am-8:30am
Coffee and pastries are served while we make sure everyone is registered and ready to go.
Jacob Kelly Quinlan
8:30am-9:00am
Vice President Alberta River Surfing Association. Event Director Slam Festival. Cofounder, Surf Anywhere. River Surfing Instructor. Surfed over 85 river waves. Riverbreak contributor.
Jacob is introducing the event and setting the tone for the day. Jacob will share stories from wave building and community building in Alberta.
Neil Egsgard
9:00am-10:00am
President of Surf Anywhere. President of Alberta River Surfing Association. Led the first surf community driven wave build project. Extensive experience in wave building & design, operations, project management, grant applications, permitting, association creation & maintenance, safety information creation, surfer data collection & analysis, research and raising political support.
Neil is presenting a step by step timeline and process for wave builds. This will include all key players, critical community work, potential roadblocks & solutions, having a “seat at the table”, best practices being prepared for burnout and raising the funds and support.
Maximilian Neuböck
10:00am-10:30am – Via Skype (Austria)
Owner of Nu.Art Surf Stuff. President of Rivermates, Austria. Director of wave build project, “The Wave” in Austria. Leading Europe’s development on whitewater safety for river surfers. Event Director, Crown of the Traun. Organizer Forum Flusswellen (River Wave Forum).
As the director of Europe’s most successful wave build project right now Max has learned that there is much more to a wave build project than engineering. Max is sharing experiences on Stakeholder Management and overall Wave Build Strategy.
Jeffrey Banks
10:30am-11:00am
Senior Vice President of Northwest Bank and cofounder Glide SUP. Raised $1.5 Million for Glide’s startup. Former Director for Kellys Whitewater park. Conceptualized The Payette River Games and raised all sponsorship funds including $1.8 million over 3 years. Board Member Friends of the Boise River park. Helped raise $3 million for current Boise park. Former director of the Utah Whitewater Film Festival. Raised $75,000 for the Snake River Fund. Former director Mountains to Metro kayak race in Ogden Utah. Raised $150,000.
Jeff will be sharing his impressive history with fundraising and what it takes to bring money in for a surf wave.
Ben Nielsen
11:00am-11:30am
Civil Engineer, McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group. Wave builder for Boise Whitewater Park and River Run Park among other river projects. Speaker River Wave Forum, Munich 2014. Premiere Wave Builder in North America.
Ben is presenting on the truth behind how much work a wave build project takes, even with ideal conditions. He is sharing his experiences and expertise in finding the best sites with the best conditions to help your wave project be successful.
Q&A
11:30am-noon
Attendees are able to present where they are with their wave builds, problems they may be running into and share any successes they have. Our panel of presenters will then suggest possible solutions or offer advice to move their project forward.
Lunch
noon-1:00pm
Attendees are served lunch and able to mingle with other guests from the morning sessions. Lunch is included in the price of the Wave Building Workshop ticket.
Business & Community
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Alex Copp
1:00pm-1:20pm
Operations Manager at Surf the Greats in Toronto. Former Manager Surf Side in Ottawa. Event Director, Ottawa River Surf Jam 2014 and 2015. Community Leader.
Alex is presenting the skills and experience he’s picked up growing the Ottawa surf community and how that has transitioned into starting his own shop in Toronto.
KB Brown
1:20pm-1:40pm
Owner of Strongwater Mnt Surf Co. and Strongwater Surfboards. River surfing surfboard shaper. River surfing pioneer.
Landlocked and miles from any coast line, Strongwater is leading the way on how a small surf shop in the mountains can shape and grow a community hungry for waves. The Missoula crew has uncovered waves all across Montana and Idaho, started a lessons program, built a strong youth community, and most of all passed on values of respect and gratitude to everyone who surfs there. KB will be sharing his experiences from shaping boards to shaping young surfers.
Discussion
1:40pm – 2:00pm
Attendees break into three groups and discuss the idea of business and their role in river surfing communities.
River Surfing Associations
2:00pm – 3:00pm
Loren Kaehn
2:00pm-2:20pm
Secretary, Idaho Surf Association. Helped organize the ISA to spread good vibes, seek out wave building opportunities and bring the community together.
Tyler Kraushar
2:20pm-2:40pm
Tyler lead the fundraising campaign for a wave build project in Pemberton, British Columbia. His team raised $14,000 in six months and with corporate partnerships and sponsorship deals their group had $200,000 lined up for the build. The project is currently on hold.
Tyler will be discussing fundraising strategies for small groups and sharing his experiences.
Discussion
2:40pm – 3:00pm
Attendees break into three groups and discuss the idea of business and their role in river surfing communities.
Future of Sport
3:00pm – 3:45pm
Panel Discussion - Streamed Live on Facebook
Alex Mauer, KB Brown, Jacob Kelly Quinlan, and Additional Speaker. Panel led by Ryan Richard.
Ryan Richard leads a curated discussion around the future of sport in river surfing. Each speaker will present a view of the future. Then Ryan will lead a question and answer with each of the speakers. Followed by questions and answers from the attendees.
This presentation will be broadcasted live through social media. Questions from people tuning in from online are encouraged to submit questions.
Working with Cities and Stakeholders
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Ryan Richard
4:00pm-4:30pm
Wave Technician Bend Whitewater Park. Former Wave Technician Boise Whitewater Park. Wave explorer. Community leader.
Ryan has more experience with adjustable surf waves in whitewater parks than anyone else in the river surf community. Ryan is covering the evolution of whitewater parks. Beginning with parks being built for kayaks to parks built specifically for surfing. A big talking point in this is the relationships with cities or businesses and how you need to ‘work’ with many people who have little to no experience in whitewater design/development.
Ben Nielsen
4:30pm-4:45pm
Ben’s bio can be found in the morning section. Ben is offering experiences from an engineer’s point of view with working with cities to achieve results desirable to surfers.
Neil Egsgard
4:45pm-5:00pm
Neil’s bio can be found in the morning section. Neil is presenting a “communication framework” when addressing cities or anyone who may have reservations with a wave project.
Q&A
5:00pm – 5:20pm
Attendees are able to ask questions of the three presenters and present setbacks or roadblocks they may have within their community.
Evening Social
6:00pm - 9:00pm Saturday, October 7, 2017
Bend Parks and Recreation
Beers with surfers. An evening of river surf discussion, mingling, and forming relationships across communities.
The Saturday Evening Social takes place in the same room as the discussions and workshop from the day. We have the room booked until 9:00pm so that’s where we’ll be. Come join us for a beer and some discussions around river surfing.
Sunday Funday
10:00am Sunday, October 8, 2017
Bend Whitewater Park, Green Wave
Time to decompress from all the talking. Time to surf.
The Sunday Surf is open to anyone and everyone and not exclusive to ticket holders. It will be a fun surf for everyone to transfer skills and knowledge from and to other river surf communities from across the continent.
