If you've never heard of a McNasty, a helix or a back scratcher, you're likely not alone. But at Wednesday night's Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club, one whitewater festival, a crowd of 60people cheered as announcer Kaelen Pallett called out the names of the boogie board and boat tricks, one by one as contestants, flipped, spun, bobbed, weaved and finally washed away down river.

The annual Whitewater Rodeo held at the Millennium Bridge in Riverdale featured eight whitewater canoe, kayak, boogie board, and rafting competitions, mostly waged between members of the club and a handful of professional rafting instructors from across the Yukon.

It was a great night for a rodeo. "We have good water tonight, Yukon Energy has been terrific in bringing it up for us,” said Walter Brennan, club member and one of this year's organizers. "A positive note today is that we have had decent weather because we have had terrible weather the last couple of weeks and just the number of participants we have had out is great.”

The events kicked off at 6 p.m. with the boogie board contest, the competition's newest event, having been introduced at last year's tournament. It was a mixed bag with both male and female contenders, people with backgrounds in both canoeing and kayaking.

Contestants each took 45 seconds to enter the "super hero” eddy and pull off a series of tricks one after another, while onlookers shouted out in encouragement from the bridge and photographers snapped off photo's from a stone breakwater.

This year's boogie board champ was Alison Daffe, who dropped into the eddy with a big barrel roll, and flipped over on her back, arms outstretched, perfectly executing a move known as a "backscratcher” by whitewater devotees. The runner ups were 10-year -old Mael Pronouost for second place and Quinn Landreth, who took third. A highlight was seven-year-old Leunda Pronouost, tiny even for her age, who furiously kicked her way into the eddy and completed two consecutive barrel rolls.

The boogie board is a big seller for the Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club. "We had the most people sign up for that event,” said club president John Quinsey. "The boogie board is a real crowd pleaser. I guess because you don't have to paddle, everyone can relate to what's going on ther. It's also fast paced and exciting.”

The following event was the seniors, or expert, freestyle. The contest had eight kayakers, each paddling their way into the eddy and attempting to hurl themselves and their boats through front and back flips, side spins and barrel rolls.

The winner was this year's top competitor, Terrace, B.C.'s Jeremy Drouin, who took this event as well as first place in the slalom race and tied for second alongside Jeff Cousins in the down river event.

"It was a good day being on the water with friends,” said Drouin, looking cold and wet but still smiling after learning of his victory. "It could have been anybody's on a lot of those, it was pretty close, everyone here is a very good paddler.

You get tired doing a lot, the biggest reward is being pooped at the end of the day and having fun on the river.”

The runners up in the freestyle event were Joel Brennan and Jason Zrum.

To the uninitiated, the kayak freestyle looks challenging, drawing on all the contestants strength to manipulate a boat, the size of themselves in a high speed dance on whitewater.

It looks simple in comparison to the freestyle canoe event.

Here contestants have the same time to struggle just to enter the eddy with a single blade paddle and a bulkier vessel and it is difficult just to stay in the pocket long enough to execute a few tricks.

The winner of the canoe freestyle was Mike Terlesky, a local competitor who says his training comes from whitewater trips into the interior of the territory, the last of which was a three week paddle which he returned from in time to enter the contest.

"It felt good to win,” said Terlesky. "It was the first time I have been in a short boat this year. This is the first time I have come out to the contest in a few years, but I have been tripping lately, the Flat River from Tungsten to Nahanni.”

Second place in the canoe freestyle went to Pelly Vincent Braun and third went to Ryan Burlingame, Whitehorse's foremost promoter of the standing paddle and recent winner of the Yukon Adventure Challenge at Tahkini Hot Springs.

The most success after Jeremy Drouin was enjoyed by Olivier Roy-Jauvin, who defeated Drouin, Jeff Cousins and Jason Zrum in this year's downriver race and took second in the slalom, squeezing by Lawrence Brennan and coming close behind Drouin.

Starting off from the edge of the city dam, the contestants strapped on brightly coloured helmets and life jackets and hopped into their boats, hitting the whitewater like a handful of colourful candy tossed into the churning river. After a mad dash downstream, Roy-Jauvin was declared the winner. His favourite event is the slalom but said he'll take a victory in the downriver as well and had something of an unorthodox strategy to get there.

"The downriver, it was a little bit of a trick, I got a head start because I didn't put my skirt on. I guess its a bit of a sneaky move, but I could have gotten my boat full of water so, I think it's fair,” he said, grinning.

This year's women's single freestyle went to Aliye Tuzlak and the recreational freestyle went to Shaun Bryant.

The final event of the evening showed just what a homespun contest like the Whitewater Rodeo is really about. The raft flip invited most of the night's competitors to sign up with one of three teams, inflating massive whitewater rafts, clamouring aboard, setting off and then attempting to flip the vessel, tossing themselves into the water, climbing back in, and rowing to shore for the victory.

The flip appears to be an accident waiting to happen but it's coordinated by each team so that no rafter is left behind.

Still, along with the regular onlookers were two EMS workers, just in case. The winner of the event was Vern's Vixens, who returned to shore with a time of 4:41. Team Oliver placed second at 5:09 and finally Team Cousins arrived at 6:09.

The 2011 Whitewater Festival ended with a winner's ceremony on the Riverdale side of the bridge, with each top contestant taking home donated items from the Kanoe People, Tim Hortons and other event sponsors.

In the end, the night was a major success for Quinsey and the organizers.

"It's been fantastic,” he said. "I just like seeing the competitors out there having a great time, because it is a great time for them. It's also great to see all the people out there as well because you never know, it's always so weather dependent. So for once this month its a beautiful summer evening, so we have had a crowd out to watch this, couldn't be better.”

Quinsey thanked the participants, volunteers and the crowd for their support but says it's not something he was surprised to see.

"It's a great paddling community here, the people who are into paddling are just a fun bunch of people. It doesn't matter how old or how young you are, people accept you for who you are as a paddler,” he says.