I went to Gauleyfest this weekend and ran into John Anderson - friend, ex-roomie, architect and whitewater advocate. I was there to drink beer and visit old friends but also did come away with more data on why this approach would be very likely successful here in CRW.....
The McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group had a booth at the festival that was a wet, working, flowing 1/12 scale artificial whitewater course that they use to market the riverfront concept to cities worldwide. Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC are currently considering the option of adding an artificial whitewater course for their waterfronts. Several of MWDG employees were of the opinion that doing a whitewater park in the area near the confluence of the Elk/Kanawha, with an airport with a huge whitewater junkie passenger flow like CRW minutes away is no-brainer rocket science.
www.mclaughlinwhitewater.com is their website.
John indicated that the three things necessary for a course to be viable are flow, real estate and drop (elevation) which it appears we have all three on the Elk. Speaking as a whitewater junkie myself, I know that if I was flying into CRW to do the New or Gauley, and knew that CharlieWest had good restaurants AND a whitewater course that I could rent a boat and surf & boof a little before dinner at Gratzi's, I would bring extra money and stay here a day extra on the way to rafting the Gauley marathon/double upper/whatever - and maybe even an extra day on the way back.....
I have contact info for John, and their website has their main business contact info.
I am planning to attend the meeting Thurday at the civic center.