Eric Boudreau has been Chair of the Sport & Competition Committee / First Vice-President since the IRF’s Congress in Japan in 2017. Before that Eric chaired the Judges Committee for many years, setting up the Judges Handbook and getting the Judging processes and documents into better order. Eric has also been appointed as the Head Judge for many of our World Rafting Championships (WRC) and will be Head Judge at our upcoming WRC 2022 in May in Banja Luka.

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The 2022 Athletes’ Commission nominations are now open. The Athletes’ Commission is usually elected each year during the World Rafting Championships (WRC), to represent the views of the Athletes within the IRF. With no WRC since 2019 no elections have been held and so the same Commission has been in place since then. Now that the 2022 WRC is coming up in May it is time to hold an election again. An Athletes meeting will be held during the WRC in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and during that meeting the election will be held.

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Jasmina Marčok was appointed as Treasurer at the IRF’s last congress which was held virtually in November 2021. With her twenty-eight years of accounting experience, and many years experience as finance manager, her experience and knowledge is a boost for the IRF’s financial accumen.

We spoke to Jasmina to find out more.

Can you give us a short history of your rafting experience?
Since 2013 I actively participated in the work of club of extreme sports PUSTOLOV, from Stari Banovci, Serbia.

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The official World Rafting Championships WRC 2022 team entry closing date coming up fast. All teams should register sooner rather than later. With no official World Rafting Championships for the last two years, excitement is running high and a record number of teams is expected to attend the IRF 2022 World Rafting Championships!

Team numbers

The number of teams that have indicated they are coming to the 2022 World Rafting Championships in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been overwhelming and exciting.

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The IRF warmly welcomes two recently appointed Honorary IRF BOD members – neither of whom are strangers to the IRF Board of Directors, or indeed to many of you.

Peter Micheler

As a past IRF President, Peter was bestowed the title of Honorary President at the 2021 Congress. Honorary Presidents primarily serve as an IRF Ambassador under the direction of the President and continue in this role for as long as they remain active in the IRF.

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IRF media contributor Annalee Decker took the plunge at the end of last year and shares with us her 2021 Grand Canyon Coming of Age story – a Rafting Rhapsody.

Rafting Rhapsody: A 2021 Grand Canyon Coming of Age

The angle was wrong. I knew it and he knew it.

Hunched down in the front of an oar frame raft, clutching cam straps for any semblance of stability, I stared down the only feature we were instructed to avoid; the cliff face.

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Royal Gorge River Initiative Organization is teaming up with American Rivers to sponsor 2022’s Royal Gorge RIO River Clean-Up. Last year they hosted a 35-mile river clean-up which saw them pulling thousand of pounds of rubbish out of the river. This year the clean-up will be on the 1st May 2022, and volunteers are needed. And besides river clean-ups, there are some raft races and whitewater festival events too!

River Clean-ups

Did you know that the most littered item is food packaging?  

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