We made a trip down to Pueblo a couple of weeks ago to checkout the whitewater park. The Arkansas river as it runs through Pueblo, Colorado is completely regulated by a damn just outside the city. Lucky for us, they decided to release some water early in the season in preparation for the spring runoff.

I had never been to Pueblo at this low of flow, so it was a bit of an explorative trip for me. At 900 CFS, I knew the 3rd wave is nice and glassy. Unfortunately at 600 CFS the conditions weren’t nearly as good…

The surfing was still fun, but not the quality that I was hoping for. At 600 CFS, the wave has a rowdy foam pile and a smooth face. The hardest part of surfing this wave was keeping the board stable while the tail is getting bounced around by the foam pile. Just for comparison purposes here’s another video from last season of the same wave at 900 CFS:

The quiver of boards I brought was targeted at the 900 CFS wave, not the 600 CFS wave. So some of the boards didn’t surf great.

The first board you see me surf in the first video is a 7’4″ Starboard Rush. I think this board would be perfect for the 900 CFS wave, but on the 600 CFS wave it was tricky to ride. You can see me constantly making small adjustments, trying to keep my rails and nose up.

The next board is even worse. The 6’6″ Starboard Impossible was just too small and unstable for this wave. It was a constant struggle to stay on the wave. With each jostle from the foam pile I’d have to fight to keep the board surfing.

Of course one of the boards I brought was the Hala Peno. The transportability of an inflatable is super nice. I’ve found this board comes with me on every trip just because it’s so easy to bring. The Peno faired better than the Starboards. Its volume and size helped smooth out the foam pile. I wasn’t able to do much other than front surf the wave, but it was way easier than the other boards.

Lastly I had the Badfish MVP-S. It performed slightly better than the Peno, but wasn’t able to completely tame this wave. I was able to make some small turns, although truly carving up the wave was out of the question. And this was only after putting in a much bigger center fin than I normally use.

Overall it was a good day surfing and experimenting with the boards. However for the next trip down to Pueblo, I think I’ll wait until the water hits 800 CFS and hope to see that glassy wave I love.

Written by | Benjamin

Benjamin Smith is a land locked surfer living in Colorado. He gets his surfing fix on the local rivers, where he SUP surfs standing waves.