What happened to the Riverdale Wave?

I drove to the Riverdale Wave for a session tonight after being deprived for 3 weeks and to my horror found it to be essentially washed out. As the waters were rising I boated it from 1500 up to 4200 and found it to be stellar at all water levels, but tonight the wave would come and go without any warning. Please tell me this is some phenomenon at 2660 cfs and as soon as it drops 50 cfs it will be back in, or it does this when the water is dropping. Please don't tell me something shifted, or all the wood up above is messing with the wave.

I agree. I also played on that wave as it went up and I remember it being the best (super friendly and still with power) at around these levels. Today it sucked. And I don't remember that second wave being there either. I hope it is that tree on the left that is pushing more water into the wave. That tree has to go. I also hope it is not the river bed that changed and that got more sediment during the high flows.

Last summer, during very low water, a few of us were up there dinking around and noticed that leaves and such were disappearing beneath the lip of the concrete at the top portion of the slide that forms the drop. Looking at it a bit closer revealed a severe undercut of that lip. I hope it didn't erode more and then collapse from all the high water.

hmmm... This is not good.

If there is a second wave below the normal wave, it likely filled the plunge pool with sediment at the super high flows. Therefore it is now "double-jumping" where it is only releasing some of its energy in the first wave and then releasing a bunch more in the second one. Should be an easy fix to dredge the new cobbles from the plunge pool. Someone whould try to contact Riverdale City to do a quick fix to save the rest of the season. Then they should build nice terracing on the bank to improve aesthetics and access in the Fall.

As Jeff mentioned, there was an enormous undercut under the upstream side of the concrete riverbed above the wave. From probing with a stick in the summer, I think you could fit a small car in there. No telling what it looks like after these high flows.
At what used to be considered "normal" flows (1400-1800), the river left eddy would be much improved (and the wave would be better at lower flows) by building up the left shoulder a bit.
Terracing, some picnic tables, and a bbq pit would be nice :-)

Just went out and gave it a look... posted a pic on FB. Its really odd looking, like there is no pressure being held back in the large pool above the drop. It seems to slowly build up then cause the green wave to break in the middle then quickly subside. The chundery little hole behind the main wave seems to stay the same throughout the build up and release. Even the runout between the first drop and the RW is different, with less waves and splashy bits than normal. There are a large amount of trees stuck in the pool on river right, it just doesn't seem to my untrained eye to be whats causing it. My biggest fear is that the high water ate away at the undercut then broke away the concrete roof of that huge undercut. It does look like a really fast boat could get some epic front surfs on it though.

The chundery little hole behind the main wave is the second wave that wasn't there before. It's super fun to surf (although I don't really surf it, it surfs me) ...but I miss the old first wave. To me, the first wave just looks washed out.

I have not seen Riverdale live yet but I have seen many structure go through similar things. If a structure "collapses" the whole thing washes out. If a plunge pool fills with sediment, there forms a second wave.

I wonder if a hundred sandbags on each shoulder would improve it..
(if you tie in every sandbag, they will stay there)

Hey, who's that prick-dick "Nick" from the FB picture post. I'd like to meet him face-to-face so he can realize what a douche-fag he's being by putting in his dumb-ass comment on there.
It's just river talk, numb-nuts, no need to be an asshole!

*edit* I'm not deleteing anything because I stand behind everything I post... but re-reading this, I may(or may not) have been a little rash upon reading Nick's FB comment regarding 'Class II bandits' and our opinions of the structural integrity of the RW. Seriously dude, I don't you and you don't know me, not sure what your intentions were, but it shows a bit of your character.

brianteats wrote:Hey, who's that prick-dick "Nick" from the FB picture post. I'd like to meet him face-to-face so he can realize what a douche-fag he's being by putting in his dumb-ass comment on there.
It's just river talk, numb-nuts, no need to be an asshole!

*edit* I'm not deleteing anything because I stand behind everything I post... but re-reading this, I may(or may not) have been a little rash upon reading Nick's FB comment regarding 'Class II bandits' and our opinions of the structural integrity of the RW. Seriously dude, I don't you and you don't know me, not sure what your intentions were, but it shows a bit of your character.

Quoted for irony.

...because I can be a hot-head when someone calls me a "Class II bandit" and can essentialy keep my own opinions about what happening under water at RW to myself?
Yeah, I'm a little bugged about that, especially when it comes from someone I've never met.
I guess the post is gone now?(I have no FB access at work LOL!). Sorry for the drama. As you were...

I'm sorry there is so much drama too. Also, this isn't facebook and we don't know what you are talking about. Let's get back on the wave.

I agree with Compton, I don't think the structure collapsed. There is still a pool of water above the wave and there is a drop of water into the wave. It just feels like the bottom section is higher and the water coming in can't form the pile. There is also that sweet second wave behind the first one. That water is brown all the time and my hair has dirt when I done playing on that feature. It's not hard to believe that the river bed can change with higher flows due to more sediment. Also, we didn't feel this change until the flows went down recently. Had the structure collapsed it would had been at high flows and we would had been able to tell when it happened. We surfed that wave as it went up and even when it was at 4000 and I never felt a significant change.

All I know is at 2500 it was the best survival side surf of my life. If you get in there a certain way it sure is hard to get out. Well for me anyway.

Class Two bandit is pretty damn funny though. I prefer Hen Tag Heros But that is not to be directed at anyone.

sorry to revive an old thread, but is there any news on the wave now that the water has gone down a bit?

So what is the verdict? Sediment and/or broken cement?!

I thought Ogden was too far I'll be looking at it later today with the lower water.

Looks like the Riverdale Wave did not move at all. Luckily it did not collapse or break. The sediment way downstream washed out and the ground under it was ripped out by the record flows and the river tunneled under it. If all goes well it should be a relatively easy fix and the City will also build nice terracing along. Nothing for sure, but maybe it will be fixed by next year and be the same wave.

That's excellent news!

awesome!

That is crazy! Glad noone got sucked under there. Great news on the fix! Some cool terracing/landscaping would be awesome.

If there's anything we boaters can do to help facilitate things, let us know. I'm sure there's LOTS of us willing to help that process along!

What needs to be done? Sounds like cement work, and some minor low flow river diversion to plug the hole. The Riverdale Sieve holds much less appeal than the Riverdale wave.