Harvie Passage draws huge crowds, and a rave review

The reviews are beginning to flow in for the redesigned HarviePassage and they're raves.

That's the early feedback anywayfrom Calgary whitewater expert and paddling instructor Mark Taylor, who already has made a number of visits to test it out.

He givesthe Bow River waterwaywhich officially reopened last Thursdaybuthad been in previews since June 23 two paddles up.

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"It is fantastic. It is so much better than Version 1.0," Taylor said.

"Version 2now has this more of a lazy, winding river atmosphere to it. It's longer, there's more features, more things to play in, more places for people to hang out and watch and see what's going on," Taylor saidin an interview with Rob Brown on The Calgary Eyeopener.

"And for kayakers, [there's] a lot more places to play and have fun."

Flood wiped out

The new HarviePassage was originally open for eightmonthsbefore being wiped out in the 2013 flood. While that was devastating,the disaster had an upside.

"It made it possible for the engineers and construction people to build a longer, way better course," Taylorsaid.

The $8-million, five-year long redesign essentially turns the river passage into two very different degrees of difficulty, so that water bugs of every skill level can navigate it.

"The river left channel, closest to DeerfootTrail, has the majority of the volume of the river going through it. It has some really fun but very large and could be dangerous to the non-experienced user going down there waves and things like that," he said.

"The river right side has asmallerportion of the river going through it. It's designedto be a safe passage thatalmost anybody can float down,but [also contains]enough bends turns and waves to keep the splash up and keep it really fun."

All of it, he added, is quite clearly markedso that no one gets unpleasantly surprised.

"There's a lot of new signage that went up. The boom is still in place upstream of it to try to direct people to the river right side to get them to try to come out and have a look andsee what it is they're getting themselves into before they start floating down," he said.

HarviePassage 2.0 is drawing serious crowds, too.

"It was so busy last Sunday which was really the first hot day where theHarviePassage had been open thatthere must have been 200 people there," Taylor said.

He said there were kayakers, canoeists, stand-up paddle boarders, people in rafts,river tubes, kids floating down on boogie boards, people swimming in the eddies in the calm parts andpeople sitting andsuntanningon the rocks.

"It was a cool thing to see. It's a fabulous recreation facility just outside of downtown Calgary," he said.

Two reminders from Taylor: always wear a life jacket, no matter how strong a swimmer you consider yourself to be, and the Bow River is always colder than you might expect it to be, even if it's 32 C out.

"It was just ice a few days ago up in the mountains," hesaid.

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• With files from The Calgary Eyeopener