SUP In Siloam Springs Whitewater Rec Park

Bad Fish team rider, Claire Chappell, at Siloam Springs Whitewater Recreation Park.

SILOAM SPRING, Arkansas - Today we've got a spot review for your, written by Bad Fish team rider, Claire Chappell, who's been taking advantage of some great inland river waves.

Words and photos by Claire Chappell

Siloam Springs Whitewater Recreation Park is the latest river park to open up. With 60 degree air last weekend and frigid water that makes me feel right at home, I had to go check it out. It’s on the Illinois river just downstream from the locally known Fisher Ford Bridge. Its just a few miles from the small town of Siloam Springs in the northwest corner of Arkansas, near the Oklahoma boarder.

This river is spring fed, the water is clear and gorgeous (except during agriculture run-off I’d imagine). There are two features and huge eddys. Even a small pool secluded from the current with a rock wall for lessons, practice or whatever your heart desires.

Features 

This is a long, shallow extremely glassy trough at the low level that I saw it (200 or 300 cfs). The back side of the wave is smooth and there is just a small bit of foam curling back upstream, but it's plenty to keep a board going. It isn’t a super wide wave but carving back and forth or throwing the board sideways is definitely not a problem. At one point I saw 3 or 4 boaters go in together to mess around and they had the space. The wave train is very short, just a couple waves, so swimming out is no big deal. Plenty of time to take some swim strokes into either eddy or hop on your board and paddle in. I’d say the entry is equally easy on both surfer’s left and right. The shoulders at the this level were low and getting on was about as smooth as any wave I’ve ever surfed. This would be a wonderful level for beginner’s to learn to SUP surf.

This was steep at low levels. Boaters could go in and loop or cartwheel but they didn’t do much surfing there. It was fun to charge through on my MVP. Maybe at higher levels boards could play, we’ll see this spring!

Parking

Although they haven’t had the grand opening, paddlers are welcome. The south (river left) side just upstream of the features is optimal for parking. You can paddle back upstream easily after your session. Parking and river access are going to be a breeze once the construction is completed.

Other Paddlers

The Arkansas Canoe Club is a great resource for paddling information in that state and also to meet up or trip plan. I met several canoers and kayakers from the club. They were very excited about the new addition and super welcoming to us out-of-staters.

There are plans for even more development a little ways downstream of the current park. From what I was told, it may be a very large wave built where a natural ledge drop exists now. Let’s hear it for gradient!

I was the only stand up paddler there that day but almost every one took an interest, asking questions in the eddy or cheering me on while I figured the wave out. I suspect a year from now there will be a few more boards to add to the rainbow of canoes and play boats. That wave is too nice not to stand up on.

You can see more articles by Claire on her person blog.