Red Ladies Raft Team punches ticket to Worlds

Strength, Heart, Sensitivity, Will

Three years ago, the Red Ladies Raft Racing team was formed. Two weeks ago, that team won the U.S. Nationals in the Royal Gorge outside of Cañon City and will represent the United States and the Gunnison Valley at the 2013 Raft Racing World Championships in New Zealand.
The team originated right here in the Gunnison Valley and after a couple of changes in personnel, gelled as a team this past year with two local paddlers, Jennifer Cook and Jennifer Hodgkiss, on the squad.
The team’s captain is Julie Sutton from Cotopaxi, with three other women—former Gunnison resident Cristin Zimmer, Heather Bryne out of Frisco and Tana Deklevar from Buena Vista—filling out the six-person team. Leading the team from the shore is coach Todd Toledo, formerly a team member of the USA Men’s Rafting Team, who has been competing in racing for 12 years.
Cook credits Sutton’s drive for bringing a strong and committed squad together.
“Julie is really passionate about rafting and raft racing,” says Cook. “She had the dream of wanting to be on the U.S. women’s rafting team.”
Cook heard of the team this past February after noticing Hodgkiss’ Red Ladies shirt at work. From there, Cook was pulled into the fold and the team’s rigorous training schedule.
With temps below freezing and river flows somewhat non-existent in the dead of winter, the team would gather at the Gunnison pool for indoor training sessions. Attaching the raft to the side of the pool with a bungee cord, the six women would jump in and just start paddling.
“We would paddle for an hour and a half in the same place,” explains Cook.
As the lakes and rivers in the Arkansas Valley became navigable in March, the team would then convene early mornings or in the evenings for additional training.
“In March we were pretty excited about getting on the river and on the lake,” says Cook. “We would practice with 100 pounds of weight in our boat and paddle for an hour straight in Franz Lake.”
They also spent mornings on the Arkansas River, training in the slalom course in Salida, and eventually moving on to training runs in the Royal Gorge and on the Arkansas River section from Salida to Rincon.
Unlike your typical raft trip, there’s not one person barking out commands like “all forward” or “all back.” Instead, it’s a mix of constant motion and chatter. While the two women in front and the two women in back mix in power strokes with steering, the two women in the middle are laying down power strokes the entire time.
“There’s not one guide,” explains Cook. “We have to communicate within the raft—it gets a little crazy at times. Imagine six women in the boat trying to get down the river—there’s a lot of talking.”
They had their first competition as a team in Taos, New Mexico in May and won that. They jumped into a race on the Animas near Durango in June and won that. Next on the list was the U.S. Nationals in the Royal Gorge and while they had faced and beat the other teams at Nationals, they had yet to compete against the 10-time defending champion, Elements Team out of Vail.
“We put in a lot of work so we were feeling pretty strong but we’d never competed against the Elements team,” says Cook. “We thought, we do have a chance to win but it’s not going to be an easy win.”
 There are four stages to raft racing: down river racing through class III and IV stretches, head-to-head racing for a mile, a slalom course portion and then a time trial section.
The Red Ladies team opened Nationals winning the time trial and the down river race, and talk of being national champions began to circulate.
“We started thinking, this could happen, we can win this,” says Cook.
They went onto the sweep all four events to be crowned the 2013 National Champions.
“At the last race the crowd was cheering ‘USA, USA’ when we crossed the finish line,” says Cook. “The feeling was just incredible. All the practice, all the time we put in driving to train and then driving back to get to work all paid off. We can say we are the USA team.”
The win earned them a spot in the World Championships in New Zealand November 18-24. The team will spend the summer and fall training, racing and spreading the good word of women’s raft racing.
“We need to start practicing on class IV and class V to prepare for New Zealand,” says Cook. “We have to step up our game. We’re going to keep racing and getting our name out there. We want to expand the sport and, hopefully, make it an Olympic sport.”
Somewhere in between training and competing, the Red Lady Raft Team also needs to raise money. A fundraiser at the Last Steep helped get them to Nationals but the cost of Worlds is significantly larger.
“Getting sponsors and raising money is another goal for us,” says Cook. “We need $2,000 by July 31 for the entry fee. Now that we have the U.S. title, we hope to find larger, big-name sponsors.”
To follow and support your locally originated U.S. National champions, check out Red Lady Raft Team online at facebook.com/RLRRacing.
As for expectations at Worlds, veteran racers told the team that they could have a shot at the podium.
“Talk is that we have a good chance at placing top three,” says Cook.