‘Bigger, grander and more fun’ is how one could define the sixth edition of the Malabar River Festival that began at Chakkittapara in the district on Wednesday. What began as an experiment to highlight the possibilities of the rivers in north Kerala six years ago, with participants from just five countries, the river festival has matured into one of Asia’s largest kayaking championships with participation from more than 25 countries this time.
To begin with, it was the International White Water Kayaking Championship until 2017, which has now transformed into the Malabar World Kayak Championship. Starting with twice Olympian Mike Dawson from New Zealand, the participants include Dane Jackson from the U.S. who bagged several Freestyle World Champion titles of the International Canoe Federation (IFC); World Freestyle Kayak champion Nick Troutman of Canada; Nouria Newman from France, winner of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship in 2014; Martina Wegman of Germany, the freestyle European Champion; and Brenden Orton from the UK who recently completed the descent of Big Banana Falls in Mexico, recording the second highest descent in history.
The event has not been officially backed by the ICF so far, but an ICF workshop for intermediate kayakers held as part of the river festival hints at a silent blessing from the world body which has been concentrating on organising kayaking events of Olympic standards world wide.
The Malabar River Festival has always had public support, as evident from the thousands of people who throng the area cheering the participants.
The festival has certainly come out of the controversy that erupted in 2016 regarding the non-distribution of prize money after the 2015 edition. Kerala Tourism that had played hide and seek about coorganising the event in the first four editions has realised its potential and has now taken it up as a prestigious event to promote adventure tourism in the State. It has joined hands with the Kozhikode District Tourism Promotion Council and Madras Fun Tools and has gained complete cooperation of Kodencheri, Chakkittapara and Thiruvamabady grama panchayats where the three rivers (venues) are located.
The biggest attraction of the event this year is the $20,000 prize money (nearly ₹14 lakh) that will be distributed among the winners in various categories. The prize money in the previous edition was ₹7 lakh.
