The largest paddle event on the Mississippi River is aiming to get even bigger with the addition of a competitive Dam to Dam Kayak Race and a new family-friendly 2025 Floatzilla Pallooza that will feature more music and other activities.
“It’s a beautiful day and we’re excited to announce some new events,” Chris True, River Action event manager, told Quad Cities media gathered on a drizzly Tuesday, March 25, morning at the Davenport Sailing Club to hear details about this year’s Aug. 16 Floatzilla.
“The big one that is new this year is a nine-mile kayak race and it’s called Dam to Dam,” Mr. True said at River Action’s news conference. “This is one that’s going to be for people who are a little bit more competitive and athletic.”
The kayak race will start at the same time as Floatzilla around 9:30 a.m. and will be going on during that event.
“It will be really cool. All of the leisurely paddlers will get to see these guys in these cool, beautiful kayaks jetting by them real quick,” Mr. True said.
Importantly, too, once that race is over, competitive kayakers will be able to join this year’s collection of recreational kayakers at Lake Potter in Floatzilla’s latest attempt to capture the so-far elusive world record for the largest raft of canoes and kayaks.
Those new Floatzilla Pallooza features are designed “to give those people more things to do while we’re all hanging out at Potter Lake, waiting for the photo, waiting for everybody to come in. There’s going to be more to do this year than traditionally we’ve had,” Mr. True said.
Who knows, he said “maybe we’ll get the world record this year.”
Expanding its reach
To help make that happen River Action also has reached out to markets in Chicago, Wisconsin and Missouri. Representatives, for example, set up a booth at the 2025 Canoecopia national conference. For example, Mr. True said, “We hope to bring a lot of people from the Madison area.”
Also expected to boost this year’s attendance is the involvement of Quad Cities Kayak Adventures and Quad Cities Fitness Paddling. Those two groups – which represent thousands of Quad Cities kayak enthusiasts and racers – are helping coordinate the inaugural Dam to Dam Kayak race.
And though the new race is expected to be competitive, anyone who wants to enter it is encouraged to do so. “We want people to come to the Quad Cities for this event,” Mr. True said. To help make that happen River Action is planning workshops, classes, leisurely paddles and more competitive paddles.
“We just want to get the whole Quad Cities on the water, and that’s really our big mission this year and when we get people out on the water then they’re going to hopefully think twice about pollution, cleaning up the waters and being outside.”
Carlos Bareto, founder of the Quad-Cities Kayakers Group, which organizes about three competitive races a year, anticipates that it will take top competitive racers about an hour and 10 minutes to finish Dam to Dam. The race starts at Illiniwek Park in Hampton, Illinois, just below Lock and Dam 14, before traveling across the channel and down to Lock and Dam 15 in Davenport.
“It’s not going to be too long. We can travel pretty fast,” he said. He anticipates for example, an average speed of 8 mph. By comparison a recreational kayaker typically travels at from 3 to 4 mph.
Record is in sight
Mr. Bareto believes his 6,000 member-group can help push Floatzilla over that world-record mark this summer. “I know we can beat that, we just have got to get everybody here at the same time,” he said.
Both Mr. Bareto and Mike Rome of Quad Cities Fitness Paddling, are passionate about competitive distance kayaking and they are eager to share its benefits to a new audience at Floatzilla 2025.
“It’s a great sport,” Mr. Rome said. “Everybody can be exceptional in this sport. I’ve seen two gentlemen last year in a race in Missouri in a tandem-racing kayak come in first overall. And not by a few seconds – by a lot. The youngest man in the boat was 74 years old.”
River Action Executive Director Kathy Wine told the QCBJ “We like to think of it as total fitness. You know, it’s mental, it’s social because you’re seeing other folks and meeting like-minded people and then that physical aspect is that cardio aspect.”
Registration for Floatzilla is $30 per person until 11:59 p.m., Monday, March 31, after which the price will increase to $35 until 11:59 p.m. Thursday, June 26. There is an additional $20 registration fee for the Dam to Dam Kayak Race.
Go here to find out more about Floatzilla 2025, Dam to Dam Kayak Race and learn about other new additions as they happen.
