Floatzilla 2011 - Thanks for paddling


Floatzilla 2011 Draws 1,535 Paddlers from 17 States!

“We had an absolutely amazing time!!! Definitely worth the 250 mile drive! We can’t wait until next year. Thanks to all the sponsor’s and coordinators who made this happen.” M.A. Anderson, Knox, IN


CLICK HERE to purchase the Official FZ Picture, commemorative pin, t-shirts, drink koozies, or stickers

The 2nd Annual Paddlesports Festival, Floatzilla, was held August 20, 2011, on the Mississippi River with 1,535 paddlers. From Ben Butterworth, 725 paddled to Lake Potter; from Credit Island, 265 paddled to Lake Potter, and from the shores of the lake itself, 545 launched.

Floatzilla 2011 Statistics: We needed 1,620 canoes and kayaks and at least as many paddlers, so we know that the world record was not broken. Floatzilla 2011 had 1,535 registered paddlers. This is 200 more than last year. We are confident that we had more in the float than last year, too; there were 955 confirmed vessels in 2010. We had no problem last year counting every kayak and canoe. This year, because the float was bigger and a wind made holding the float more difficult, we cannot confirm the vessels in the photos we took from the 100 ft. boom, but around 1,075 can be counted.

After scheduling an airplane flyover last year that by necessity was canceled because of low cloud cover, none was scheduled this year. Our photos from the 100 foot boom last year were sufficient. Next year, an airplane flyover will be scheduled in order to assure a variety of exposures from as many different angles as possible.

Floatzilla will continue to offer more value to paddlers next year such as an expanded trade show plus new and additional guided floats.

Zoom in and try to see yourself here:

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Thx to all the 2011 FZ paddlers!


Saturday greeted everyone with a lot of warm sun and perfect paddling weather. We are currently going over pictures and video to get an accurate count of all boats in the raft.

In the next couple days the official video and Floatzilla Raft pic will be uploaded. Until then, check out the FZ Facebook page to share your favorite picks and paddling stories.

Here are some of our favorites that have been posted so far:

photo by Kelly Brant
photo by Kelly Brant
photo by Peggy Kline
photo by Tom Dellit
photo by Poutine La Masoneuax
photo by Holly Schmidt
photo by Shawn Boesen
photo by
photo by Monica Polich Kruse
photo by Aaron Stodola
photo by Teri Schultz
photo by Tim Larson

River Action, Inc., is the event coordinator.
For more information, visit the River Action website or call 563-322-2969.

Floatzilla 2010

By any measure, Floatzilla 2010 was a huge success. High-res images of Floatzilla now available for prints. Thanks to all of the paddlers, volunteers and sponsors for making this a memorable event.

1,337 paddlers from 17 states and several foreign countries converged on the Quad Cities for Floatzilla on August 21st, 2010. Through careful digital analysis of photographic evidence captured from the top of a 100-foot crane, a total of 955 canoes and kayaks were counted in the Floatzilla raft.

Though short of the record (the record at the time was 1,104 vessels), the paddlesports festival garnered an overwhelmingly positive response.