As many as 300 paddlers shot over the historic falls at Ohiopyle State Park Aug. 22, making over 1,000 spectacular runs during the annual American Whitewater Ohiopyle Over The Falls Festival.

But the event could have made its last splash.

The festival marks the only day of the year paddlers are permitted to navigate the 18-foot drop and thrilling, whitewater rapids just upstream. In its eleventh year, thousands watched from the banks of the Youghiogheny River as paddlers plied the Class IV rapids.

While the festival was considered a success, coordinator Barry Adams of American Whitewater, one of the sponsors, said it isn't having the desired effect on officials at the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks, which sanctions the event.

"We feel the falls is just like any other rapid in the park and paddlers should be able to run it any time they want," he said. "The purpose of the festival is to draw attention to the falls, to get access to running the falls at least on a limited basis other than this one time of year. We've had this event for 11 years with no serious injuries and still no access. It doesn't seem to be helping at all."

On July 31, the state rejected a petition from concerned paddlers that would have given them increased access to the falls at Ohiopyle. American Whitewater is considering moving the Over the Falls Festival in 2010 to Valley Falls State Park on the Tygart Valley River in West Virginia, where whitewater paddling is permitted year-round.

"We're very disappointed," said Adams. "I know of no other waterfalls in the United States that is illegal to run, other than Niagra Falls. And Ohiopyle can't equate with Niagra Falls."

Adams said this year's Over the Falls Festival was completed without any serious injuries, and attracted paddlers from as far as Colorado and Canada.

"The thing that surprises me the most is that we've been doing this for 11 years and people are still coming from all over -- at least half of them from outside the state -- to paddle here," he said. "We always get new people. That amazes me."