2016 World Jet Boat Championships

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Meridian 17-year-old to navigate her dad’s jetboat at worlds

Ashley Geis knew she wanted to race jetboats in whitewater when she was 4 or 5.

“I told my dad, as soon as I get old enough, I want to race,” she said. “That’s the one thing that I want. Right when I turned 15, we started looking for boats.”

Ashley, 17, will serve as the navigator for her dad, Adam Geis, in the World Championship Marathon Jet Boat Race later this month in North Idaho. The navigator reads the gauges, plots the course along the river and provides other support to the driver, who doesn’t have time to do anything but drive at 100 mph.

The family lives in Meridian.

“I promised her a few years ago when she got old enough, I’d (race) again,” said Adam, a former sprint-boat driver on closed courses and jetboat navigator. “It came along a lot quicker than we thought. A lot of good friends are helping us. We finally hit our 21-year goal this weekend of triple digits. It was so cool.”

Adam’s dad also raced boats. Adam’s sprint-boat navigator was Ashley’s mom, Kim.

Still, the father-daughter duo is a racing dynamic unlike anything the family has experienced.

“It’s really wonderful,” Adam said, “but it’s scary at the same time.”

The World Championship is May 20-29. It covers 545 miles across four rivers in nine days. One leg is a three-lap race on a 15-mile course with side-by-side racing.

Ashley has studied Google Earth to help her learn the rivers.

“She’s got a lot on her plate — a lot of work,” Adam said. “I get the fun part, to man the gas and steer. ... She’s got a lot more pressure than I do, to be honest.”

Ashley has been boating since she was 6 months old. She’s driven most of the family boats (but not this one) and calls the Snake River through Hells Canyon “my favorite place in the world.” The family attends the jetboat races in Riggins every year. The junior at Meridian Medical Arts Charter High dreams of building boats for a living.

“It’s just everything to me,” Ashley said of boating. “I love it so much.”

She helped her dad build the boat they’ll race. Eventually, she wants to move into the driver’s seat.

“Of course, it’s nerve-racking, but it is so exciting,” she said of her upcoming racing debut. “No matter what happens, it’s going to be a great memory.”

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/article75484207.html#storylink=cpy

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World Jet Boat races attract record field
By Oron Gilmore

Preparations for the World Championship Jet Boat Races have entered the final stretch as St. Maries prepares to welcome teams from all around the world. Racers from New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are set to gather in St. Maries ahead of the races, which start Friday, May 20, on the St. Joe River.

A record number of jet boats will gather in St. Maries to run in the races. In addition to returning competitors and multi-time world champions, this year’s event has drawn teams from several countries that will be seeing the area for the first time.

http://www.gazetterecord.com/news/article_74da6ca0-1790-11e6-ac06-c7d053b51e63.html

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Jet boat marathon still need permit for leg of race

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Organizers of the World Championship Jet Boat Marathon still don't have a key permit for one leg of the race with a week to go.

The Lewiston Tribune reports (http://goo.gl/WfsxtD ) the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is determining whether the race poses a risk to endangered bald eagles along the Grande Ronde River. The U.S. Coast Guard can't issue a permit until then.

The series of races begin in north Idaho Saturday with legs on the St. Joe, Coeur d'Alene, Snake and Grand Ronde rivers.

The Grande Ronde is a new venue and added in part because nearby rivers are crowded with spring chinook anglers.

Race organizer Shirley Ackerman said she's confident the paperwork will be done in time.

Fish and Wildlife spokesman Leith Edgar says his agency got the application a couple of weeks ago. He says they're doing what they can to speed up the process, which typically takes about 30 to 60 days.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/nation/jet-boat-marathon-still-need-permit-for-leg-of-race/article_7403621f-0f4b-5a76-9752-38904f88d00a.html

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Two area jet boat races OK’d; permit still pending for Grande Ronde

WATERSPORTS -- With the start of the World Championship Jet Boat Marathon on the St. Joe and Coeur d'Alene rivers less than a week away, organizers still lack a key permit for the third leg of the race.

Federal wildlife officials continue to work on environmental analysis related to bald eagles along the Grande Ronde River, reports Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune.

Before the U.S. Coast Guard can issue a permit for that leg of the race, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must determine the event either poses no risk to bald eagles or that risks can be mitigated.

Meanwhile, anglers and other river users should outings on the region's most prized fishing streams with attention to the racing calendar.

Here's the rest of the Tribune's update:


The series of jet boat races begins next Saturday with two days on the St. Joe River at St. Maries and will move to the Coeur d'Alene River May 24-25, before wrapping up with three days of racing in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley starting May 27. The first day in the valley features a race from Hells Gate Marina on the Snake River to Boggan's Oasis on the Grande Ronde. A second leg will return from Boggan's to Hells Gate.

The world championship cycles between Canada, the U.S., Mexico and New Zealand, with each country playing host every four years. It was last held in the U.S. in 2012, with legs on the St. Joe, Clearwater, Snake and Salmon rivers. The Grande Ronde is a new venue for race organizers and was added in part because the Clearwater and Salmon rivers are crowded with spring chinook anglers.

Inclusion of the Grande Ronde has elicited negative comments from some people who feel the river is too small and environmentally fragile for the powerful boats - some of which can easily exceed 100 mph.

Despite the pending permit for the Grande Ronde leg, event organizer Shirley Ackerman of St. Maries said she is confident the needed paperwork will be completed in time.

"Everything is being addressed, so we are excited for the races to be here very soon," she said. "We are all trying to work in partnership."

Leith Edgar, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Boise, said the work is going down to the wire because the agency only recently received an application from race organizers. It generally takes 60 to 90 days to process such applications.

"We got it a coupe of weeks ago," he said. "We are doing it in approximately half the time it typically takes us to do that and our biologists are going above and beyond to make it happen.

"We are optimistic, but we obviously have to make sure eagles will not be impacted and if impacts do occur that proper mitigation is undertaken in order to offset that disturbance."

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Laura Springer at Portland, Ore., said organizers of events like jet boat races need to be aware that environmental analysis is part of the permitting process and it can be time consuming.

"They are the biggest hurdles they have to deal with," she said.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2016/may/16/two-area-jet-boat-races-okd-permit-still-pending-grande-ronde/

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Jet boats race on Coeur d'Alene River for first time

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho -- Some of the fastest boats on the water are back in North Idaho.

Teams from across the world are competing in the World Championship Jet Boat Race. The races are scheduled on 4 different rivers, which includes for the first time, the Coeur d'Alene River.

People from all over have traveled to North Idaho to see the races. The races are timed and the boats leave one at a time.

"I was really excited to see the jet boats, how fast they went. And it was exciting," said Jet Boat Fan Cathy Winscot.

Jet Boat racing is pretty common on the St. Joe River in St. Maries, where the event started.This is the first time there have been races on the Coeur d'Alene River though.

According to a spokesman with the Environmental Protection Agency's Field Office in Coeur d'Alene, there were some concerns about these boats possibly disturbing mining waste sediment in the river. They said the boats were not expected to cause much of a disruption. Still environmental officials took water samples before and after the race so that they will know for sure.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said they have not had any problems with the races on the river. Now, the boats will head on to Lewiston to race on the Grand Ronde and Snake Rivers for the final leg of the race.

http://www.nwcn.com/news/local/kootenai-county/jet-boats-race-on-coeur-dalene-river-for-first-time/215212393

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