This year’s event seemed to have a bigger crowd and more excitement than previous years. There were 55 Canoes and Kayaks and 51 crazy craft and the emergency crews had many occasions to rescue participants from drowning – see video below. The water seemed faster and although many crazy craft hit bottom (on the rapids), it was definitely a little deeper. The event was originally scheduled a week earlier but was postponed due to the bad weather. It seems that lots of people heard about the new date and were able to come a week later. I don’t have numbers but there seemed to be more vendors around as well – one popular food truck was from MacDonalds; they were handing out free coffee.
It’s a great family event and lots of kids were there. And free too unless you go to a vendor truck. It looks like Port Hope got its act together – it’s now well organized with lots of “care” for the participants: OPP, Port Hope Police, Port Hope Fire and other security and emergency personnel were not only there but were helping out.
The video below tries to capture some of the atmosphere as well as the drama – at right is a screen grab from the video showing one of the spills. The water is not deep at about 2 feet but many had a problem standing up in the fast flowing water. In a couple of cases, it’s clear that without help, people could have drowned. The water was no doubt cold too so there could be hypothermia.
The video is 25 minutes but the event itself was quite a bit longer. As well as editing out gaps, the video omits many early canoes and kayaks as well as the trailing crazy craft. Be sure to use full screen mode to see it in full HD.
Links
- Float your Fanny Down the Ganny – Facebook page
- Float your Fanny down the Ganny – web site
- Post and video of 2017 event
- Post and video of 2016 event
Print Article:
In a single video ( https://www.facebook.com/floatyourfanny/videos/1606678326046540/ ) promoting the event was posted last month. It has garnered over 64,000 views and 1,154 shares. Cobourg Tourism videos are barely shared. It would be advantageous if Town officials sent their new tourism video in an email blast to all Town employees and volunteers requesting that each share the video on their social media.