Tulsa Raft Race mixes creativity and tradition
Elias Brinkman / Collegian
For the first time in over two decades, Tulsa’s Great Raft Race took place last Monday on the Arkansas River. Funded mainly by Tulsa Young Professionals, the event featured a variety of home-made rafts, such as the Viking-piloted “Wraft of Asgard.” Sara Douglas Student Writer
City Park, a site along the Arkansas River with a convenient boat ramp and plenty of parking for rafters and spectators alike. Live music and food Thousands of Tulsans turned out this Labor Day trucks contributed to the festival-like vibes of the to observe a spectacle that had not taken place in occasion. Creativity was apparent in the majority Tulsa for 21 years: Tulsa’s Great Raft Race, an of the raft designs, which were carried through event that had been a tradition through the 80s the crowds to the water’s edge by their teams and and 90s but was discontinued until this year. Raft Race volunteers. Funded and endorsed in its return primarily by Both homemade and inflatable rafts, along with Tulsa’s Young Professionals, the event was not canoes and kayaks, were permitted this year, alunderwhelming; there are plans to continue the though motors of any kind were not allowed. revived tradition each Labor Day for the foreseeHewlett-Packard’s team worked around that able future. stipulation in a way by building a paddle wheel The event kicked off at Sand Springs’ River attachment connected to a bicycle on the back
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of their floating platform; their fuel of choice appeared to be low-point canned beer, the only alcoholic beverage allowed. Rafts were required to have a designated driver, and law enforcement was on the river for the day to ensure the boaters’ safety. Tulsa World staff members constructed a simpler raft made of plastic barrels, rope, plywood and two-by-fours. Complexity wasn’t necessarily advantageous to the others, as the World’s raft appeared more manageable than some others on the water. It stayed afloat just as easily as the two dragon-shaped rafts on the river: one belonged to
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