Get Set for GAF: Events Line-Up

This year's Guest Appreciation Festival (GAF) features more stuff than we can fit in one blog post. So stay tuned over the next two weeks for special sneak peeks at sale items, pre-GAF contests, park and shuttle information and all the details you'll need to make your GAF visit a success.

GAF 2009 Satruday Event Line-Up
In addition to GAF mainstays like the NOC Used Gear Sale, the Gear Marketplace and Outfitter's Store Sidewalk Sale, Saturday September 26 features an entire day's worth of games and contests. Stick around and enjoy the best fall festival.

Subaru Sumo Thunder Challenge
10am-5:30pm
Subaru sanctions the popular Sumo Thunder Challenge, in front of the Outfitter's Store. Last year, our bracket system pitted two fierce competitors in a head-to-head race (in the sumo suit) toward a kayak, which the winner got to take home.

ShredReady/IR Pumpkin Pursuit
11:30am
Remember the Headhunter race at the Ocoee? Spencer Cooke will be throwing numbered pumpkins into Nantahala Falls, and contestant boaters will be scrambling to retrieve as many as possible. At Saturday's Woody Pines show, we'll award prizes to the collecters of randomly-drawn numbers.

Dagger Old School Rodeo
12pm-1pm
Dagger's Anna Levesque and Adam Moates judge the old-school rodeo at the bottom of Nanty Falls. Old boats, old tricks.

LiquidLogic Giant Slalom
1:30pm-2:30pm
LiquidLogic's Woody Calloway will officiate this slalom race, beginning at the boater take out just upriver from Slow Joe's Cafe. Course ends with a splash through the wave and an eddy just above the old steel bridge. Participants rochambeau for prizes.

Jackson Big Trick Competition
3pm-4pm
International Whitewater Hall of Famer and founder of Jackson Kayak Eric Jackson hosts the Big Trick Competition at the Outfitter's Store wave.

Pyranha Head-to-Head Speeder Challenge
4:30pm-5:30pm
Pyranha brings you a Boater-X style race from the NOC beach to just above the old steel bridge, all in Pyranha's boats.

Video Premieres
Head to the Rafting Center around 4pm for the kayaking cinema, where we'll feature world premieres from Lunch Video Magazine and EffortTV. We'll also roll out the NOC/Dagger Freestyle Shootout 09 world premier and the IWHOF 2009 Inductee video.

Wacky Wild Ride Booth - All day
Take a ducky over Big Wesser Falls, or at least look like you did! Our Photo Finish will have a Wacky Wild Ride booth set up with a green screen, for creative ducky riding photos. Photo sessions are free, and images are available for purchase online. The Wacky Wild Ride Booth will be set up in front of the Photo Finish building, on river left.

Rafting and Paddling
Don't forget that all weekend long, whitewater rafting and paddlers' shuttles will run from NOC to the put-in. Take advantage of rafting and paddling now, because Duke turns off the water on the Nantahala on October 5 for winter maintenance.

Games and Clinics
Set up across NOC are games and clinics that anyone can participate in all weekend long. We'll have the cornhole toss game, climbing wall and slide, fishing programs, water cannon battles, a bouncy house, foamy boat building and racing, throw bag clinics and much more.

Other Competitions - Details coming soon!
We're still working out details on these events, but bet that they'll be lots of fun. I mean, who doesn't want to watch a kayak go through a chipper?

Cash for Clunkers Canoe Return Program
LiquidLogic Boat Recycling
Crowded Canoe Challenge
Attainment Races
American Whitewater Raffle

Flashback: GAF 2008 Images

This happy shopper made off with a sweet Zoom.

The crowd at the Gear Marketplace, now on River Right.

The rochambeau for a LiquidLogic kayak.

The Outfitter's Store Sidewalk Sale