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• • .. . . Championships were held at a spot called Bitches, England, in 1991. But it was ' the '93 Worlds at Hell Hole on Tennessee's Ocoee River-won by US Olympic ;';}7:'Ⴀ Take downsized kayak, plug in a water warrior, insert in a river where the current's cranking up froth, shake until thoroughly mixed. Result: a new-school blend of kayaking, gymnastics and bronc-riding that's become the next evolutionary p in aggressive athletics. For the uninitiated, whitewater rodeo-a.k.a. playboating or freestyle ng-Iooks more like aquatic chaos than controlled choreography. Rodeo is so quickly that new moves, and a whole new lexicon to identify them, are ing almost overnight. Only a few years back, surfing and endos (standing the up on either end) were state-of-the-art. Today, it's cartwheels. Dramatic shifts in boat sizes and shapes help make moves once ble possible. Kayaks have contracted from 13 feet long to under seven in some cases. Rounded displacement hulls have morphed into flat, planing pes that spin and skip easily on the surface current. Decks feature exotic looking scoops, wings and edges that use the current to squirt the boat into ravit y-defying gyrations. What rules? "Throwing ends," which, when seen from the riverside, is . Linked endos. The better the boater, the more ends they can . The cartwheel-the present standard for end-throwing-is the equivalent two linked endos. More accomplished rodeo hot shots aim for 10-20 linked ends Playboating, the non-competitive version of rodeo, has been around ce people started whitewater in kayaks. The fi rst rodeo World " .. 1f. 1 1>. ' Whitewater Slalom Team paddler Eric Jackson-that boosted awareness of the sport. The inclusion of whitewater slalom in the 1972 Olympics, the emergence of Baby Boomers into their economic prime and the movie Deliverance helped fuel the growth of whitewater sports. But over the past two decades, the Boomers have gradually retreated from edgier adventure sports, trying to balance leisure time and disposable income with work and responsibilities. In the early '90s, whitewater kayaking appeared to have peaked. Then, just when a shot of adrenaline was needed, along came rodeo. Skill levels are growing exponentially, but the chaos factor remains a large part of the attraction. "Right now, the whitewater market is 100,000 people," says Chan Zwanzig, founder and owner of Wave Sports, the Colorado kayak manufacturer, and a key catalyst in the rodeo movement. "We're marketing to 30 mi llion people who don't paddle. We're marketing to people who skate, slide or ride. " All you need for rodeo is some kind of river hydraulic-a hole or wave. Destination, or park-and-play, boating is integral to rodeo and an increasing number of cities are beginning to look at their urban waterways as recreational resources instead of sewer pipes. The metro Denver area alone boasts four urban whitewater parks where rodeo wannabes flock during paddling season . Does rodeo kayaking have a future or is it simply a fad? Too early to tell. But it has clearly transformed the sport. "Ten years ago, what happened in the hole was a thrashing," says competitor and Dagger kayak designer Mark Lyle. "Now it's being done on purpose."