The Global Paddling Community

Spot: Canada, Northwest Territories, Slave River, Outrageous. Attention: Outrageous is not one spot you can play in all day and then drive home; it has to be done as a run.

What's it like

Outrageous is one of the best surf waves on the mighty Slave river. It is a 6 to 12 foot high wave depending on levels and, like everything on the slave, it surges a lot. It has a 2 to 4 foot pillow at the top but can get totally green and jack way up. It is super fast and you can put three people on there at once but they'd better be good paddlers and ready for a ton of collisions. Outrageous is often compared to Skookumchuck. The water behind it is fast and squirrelly and can be very tough for beginners (a swim isn't too bad unless you head over towards Daves' Demise, named after the three Daves who have run/swam that ugly hole thing....).

How to get there

To get there by car drive to Edmonton and then head north through High Level. Head toward Hay River in the NWT and then make for Fort Smith. You can either go north on highway 2 through Slave lake or west on highway 16 to Whitecourt and Fox Creek then north. Keep going north to High level. Then towards Hay River and Enterprise. At Enterprise keep going through to Fort Smith. Both routes are similar in distance and road quality. If the drive is too long you can also fly up on either Canadian Airlines or Northwestern Air.

Pelican Falls if you dare and thousand of other drops, holes and waves await. More detailed information about how to get there can be found at the website listed below.

To get to Outrageous you have got to find a local; they know the way. Do not go without someone who knows the river: it is easy to get disoriented and head towards something that will kill you (PLAYAK.COM cannot be held responsible for loss or damage of any organic/inorganic hard- and software).

Don't forget to drop into the wave pool - water slides at the West Edmonton Mall on your way out - it's a cool break from all the road boredom!

Locals

This place is awesome, the locals are great and very hospitable. Do it, plan it out and just get yourself down there!

A few paddlers still live in Fort Smith and would likely be more than happy to show you around. Look for [mail address protected from spambots with javascript] , Dave Lammerse ("The Worst"), [mail address protected from spambots with javascript] , or Greg Kozstinka (in the summers). Just ask anyone in Fort Smith about them - everyone knows everyone.

Events

Look for details about the Slave River Rendezvous at the above website.

Info sources

[mail address protected from spambots with javascript] , [mail address protected from spambots with javascript]