Home >  Sports >  Outdoors

Sunday, September 23, 2001

By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Jeff Snyder has come up with a novel way to raise money for the rural fire companies that serve Ohiopyle and his home town of Accident, Md.

	Jeff Snyder impresses fans with his daring runs over the Ohiopyle Falls while standing up in an inflatable kayak. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

He is accepting pledges from people who have agreed to donate a quarter, a dollar or more each time he runs the 18-foot-high waterfall on the Youghiogheny River next weekend in Ohiopyle, Fayette County.

And he tells them up front that he plans to do it 52 times.

Standing up.

Snyder, a 40-year-old woodworker and furniture-maker, will be one of the major attractions at the Third Annual Ohiopyle Falls Race. More than 200 kayakers and a small number of canoeists are expected to participate.

It's the only opportunity to run the falls legally. Paddlers caught doing it at any other time can be charged with defiant trespass and reckless boat operation and ordered to pay fines starting at $300 and $86 in court costs.

The falls race is sponsored by the American Whitewater in cooperation with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the state Fish and Boat Commission and Ohiopyle State Park.

Competitors can make as many practice runs as they want from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday. The race begins at 11:15 a.m. Sunday and will be followed by a freestyle event in which some of the most talented kayakers in the country do spins, flips and tricks over the falls.

The entry fee is $25 and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Ohiopyle-Stewart Volunteer Fire Department. The department provides a place for the competitors to meet and change clothes. It also provides some communication and security assistance.

"We are very pleased with the remuneration we receive from American Whitewater," said Assistant Fire Chief Mark McCarty, who also is the mayor of Ohiopyle.

"The falls race is a wonderful opportunity for experienced kayakers to demonstrate their skills, and the spectators will enjoy Jeff's novel approach to running the falls," added McCarty, co-owner of Laurel Highlands River Tours, one of four state-approved commercial rafting companies in Ohiopyle.

Snyder, who is blessed with extraordinary skill and balance, will share the money he raises with the Ohiopyle fire department and the volunteer fire departments in nearby Accident and Friendsville, Md.

"I ran the falls about 30 times last year," he said. "I'm confident I can do it 52 times this year -- one for each week in the year. I don't plan to stop for lunch. I'll grab something to eat while I walk back up to make another run."

When Snyder showed up for the first falls race in 1999 with his custom-rigged blue and white inflatable kayak and 10-foot wooden paddle, he casually walked it about 100 yards above the falls, stepped into the foot stirrups that help him maintain his balance and pushed off from the rocky shoreline just below the new bicycle bridge.

The spectators gathered on two observation platforms directly across from the falls didn't notice him at first. The few who did thought he was scouting his approach or showing off and soon would sit down like other competitors who were running the falls in inflatable kayaks.

But he didn't.

The closer he got to the point of no return -- a sloped V-shaped section of the river called a ramp or a slide -- the quieter the spectators became.

Surely he wasn't going to run the falls standing up, they said to one another.

Yes, he was.

After waiting for several others to take the plunge in their multicolored kayaks, Snyder dug his paddle into the churning water and headed for a rooster-tail of water just to the right of center.

He made one more paddle stroke at the edge of the falls, leaned back a bit, bent his knees slightly in a skier's stance to absorb the impact and rode the cascade into the foam below. He landed upright and resumed paddling as the spectators roared their approval.

"It's like landing on a pillow when you do it right," said veteran kayaker Barry Tuscano, 50, a contractor who lives in Bolivar. Tuscano and Jim Greenbaum, general manager of Whitewater Adventurers, another state-approved rafting company in Ohiopyle, were instrumental in organizing the annual event.

Snyder ran the falls upright three more times and then paddled a standard kayak over the falls during the race and finished in the top 10.

Snyder, a native of Euclid, Ohio, said he grew up around water and white water. "I've never been afraid of it. As a matter of fact. I'm a good bit more graceful on the water than I am on land."

He has run waterfalls on the Big Sandy, Gauley and Tygart rivers in West Virginia, the Russell Fork on the border of Kentucky and Virginia and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

He said he was inspired to try what he calls "striding" during a kayak trip to Mexico several years ago where he saw children paddle dugout canoes while standing.

"They let me try it and it was a lot of fun."

If you'd like to participate in Snyder's pledge drive on behalf of the local fire departments, call him at 301-746-8543.

A 70s Disco Party with live music, a fund-raising event for American Whitewater, will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Riversport Campground along the Youghiogheny River, about one mile outside Confluence. The party is free to registered racers and $5 to nonracers.

It will be hosted by the Riversport School of Paddling, Dagger kayaks and Red Hook Beer. Dagger also will raffle off a few kayaks. For more information, call 800-216-6991 or 814-395-5744.

For more information on the falls race, call American Whitewater at 301-589-9453 or check its Web site at http://www.americanwhitewater.org/ or http://www.emich.edu/paddle/AOPFindex.html.