Stan Watkins, Whitewater Regular

For 25 straight years Kalispell Athletic Club owner Stan Watkins raced down the Wild Mile during Bigfork’s annual Whitewater Festival.

“I was sitting there at 57 (years old),” Watkins said. “And I was thinking, ‘I’m just as nervous as I was 20 years ago.’”

The first time he kayaked in the slalom race, he swam and it definitely wasn’t the last swim he would have.

“My claim to fame is I’ve swam every stretch of the Swan,” Watkins said. “I swam a lot.”

And every time he swam a stretch of the river he had to buy pitchers of beer for all his kayaking buddies afterward. But that was at a time when Flathead kayakers were a smaller portion of the racers. Back then Watkins said there was only 10 or 12 kayakers in the valley.

The sport has blossomed over the years, but it still takes a certain type of crazy to run the Swan River during the highest point of spring run-off.

“You gotta be quasi-fearless, a little bit nutty, and you have to be aggressive,” he said. “If you make the wrong stroke, or two or three, you’re going to be in something ugly.”

The river is high and fast, the rapids are close together and the river is narrow, so once you’re in, that’s it. Watkins said it’s a more reactive type of kayaking than what’s done on most rivers.

He stopped kayaking the Wild Mile three years ago.

“It’s a young man’s sport,” Watkins said.

Watkins is now 60 and still participates in the Whitewater Festival triathlon, which he has participated in for the last 28 years and organized since 2004.

He usually runs 7-10 triathlons a summer and also organizes the Whitefish Triathlon. He said the Bigfork triathlon has changed courses and triathlon directors over the year, but participators still get a burger and beer at the Garden Bar when they’re done.

The race used to be more of a team race, but has become more soloist heavy.Now there are more soloist racers than teams.

While Watkins said his age is catching up with him, he still loves to trim up for racing season. And for him there’s just something about a competitive race, whether on foot, on a bike or in a boat, that has always grabbed him.

“Once you’ve conquered it and are at the finish line, it’s that adrenaline type feeling,” Watkins said. “It’s just fun.”