Vandals damage B.C. river kayak course
CBC News
Posted: Feb 20, 2013 8:11 AM PT
Last Updated: Feb 20, 2013 10:06 AM PT
Kayakers on the Chilliwack River say a world-renowned rapids course has been hit by vandals.
A dozen gates hanging above Tamihi Rapids have been cut down in the past two weeks.
“You come up, get a training session in and just to see all the gates hanging in the water and to see that they've been willfully cut down — it was just devastating,” said Brenda Denhollander, the mother of national white-water paddling champion Jazmyne Denhollander.
The area has been used as an Olympic training course for almost 40 years and is also a popular area for anglers.
Now the club needs a big volunteer effort to re-hang many of the gates and replace some at a cost of about $100 dollars each.
Sam Fletcher, who has paddled with the Chilliwack Centre of Excellence for the past four years, will be helping with the cleanup.
“It’s just a lot of time that could be used paddling that we're going to use fixing gates now.”
Police are investigating the vandalism and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
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