Kayaking popularity rises

By Joe Kay
Associated Press

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The bright red paddlewheel smacks the Ohio River in a rolling cadence, churning
a path through the mud-hued water. Trailing the riverboat is a solitary blue
kayak, riding the waves.

Steering with a double-ended paddle, a mustachioed man in a weathered baseball
cap darts through the froth. Passengers on the paddlewheeler are intrigued by
this meeting of Mark Twain-era transportation and jet-age recreation.

"You can get on one of those big waves, and it is unbelievable in terms of the
thrill of the ride," said Brewster Rhoads, a political consultant who kayaks the
river most days. "You can just surf it like with a surfboard. My record is 43
minutes on the same wave."

There aren't many waves like it around these parts. Paddlers in the Midwest have
to be inventive to enjoy one of the country's fastest-growing recreational
activities. They are.

Wherever there's water - pristine or polluted, in the heart of a city or out in
the hinterlands - there's likely to be a paddle stirring it. The Outdoor
Industry Foundation has tracked the popularity of bicycling, hiking, skiing,
kayaking and 18 other recreational activities over the last eight years, looking
for trends.

The paddlers have impressive numbers. Annual surveys indicate that kayaking has
doubled in popularity since 1998. The foundation, which encourages outdoor
activities, estimates that 12.6 million people got into a kayak last year. About
2 million of them kayak regularly.

In the Midwest, part of the fun is finding unusual places to test the limits.

The 28-mile Mill Creek, an industrial dumping spot for generations, got so
polluted that the conservation group American Rivers in 1997 designated it North
America's most endangered urban river. Bruce Koehler, an environmental planner,
sat through dozens of meetings about the roiled creek and heard the horror
stories. "I wanted to go down and see what we were talking about," he said.

In 1994, he first dipped a keel into the witches' brew of sewage and industrial
waste. As he paddled along, he saw a construction company bulldozing material
into the creek. An abandoned easy chair jutted from the middle of the channel.

Since then, he has taken more than 300 people on the creek for a firsthand look
at work that needs to be done. He dubs this hardy group the "Mill Creek Yacht
Club."

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