Photos: The Russian River Rat Race brought a quirky touch to watercraft racing

In 1980, the city of Healdsburg revived a decades-old tradition as a way to inspire, and invest in, communal fun.

With Coors Beer, Trowbridge Recreation and radio station KREO-FM as its sponsors, the city put on the Great Russian River Rat Race, modeled after the Healdsburg Water Carnival that started in the early 1900s. Proceeds of the festival would go toward a community swimming pool in Healdsburg.

Festivities included live music, barbecues, Frisbee games, tug-of-war, a water ski show and the first Women’s Russian River Bodybuilding Contest. The main event was the river race, where contestants would pilot cleverly-decorated canoes down the Russian River, from Alexander Valley Campground to Healdsburg’s Memorial Beach.

Prizes were awarded to the three best decorated canoes. Rat Race T-shirts and survival medals were given to all participants at the finish line. Larry Welz of Santa Rosa won first place for most decorative canoe, and Rhondell Rasmus, a student at Navarro’s Karate Academy of Santa Rosa, won the first women’s bodybuilding title.

The second annual Russian River Rat Race in 1981 welcomed 1950’s Mr. America, Jimmy Payne, as the master of ceremonies, who also exercised with contestants in the women’s bodybuilding contest.

The first two Rat Race events were a huge success, with an estimated 10,000 people attending the first festival and 14,000 at the second, according to an article in the June 8, 1982, issue of The Press Democrat. The festival was canceled in 1982, however, because it was “too successful.”

The issue, according to the article, was that the Rat Race sponsors did not charge admission to Memorial Beach during the events, and expenses overtook income made off food and drink sales.

The 1980 race saw expenses of approximately $27,000, leaving only $6,400 left for the communal swimming pool fund, according to Dave Norman, KREO sales manager and a Rat Race director. He said expenses of the second festival were estimated around $40,000, leaving only a few dollars left for the Chamber of Commerce.

“The Rat Race was too big, too fast and too popular,” Norman said, indicating that sponsors were considering holding individual events separately and charging admission in the future.

The Rat Race returned in 1983 with new sponsors. According to a Cloverdale Reveille article on Aug. 31, 1983, there was a $55 entrance fee, and proceeds of the race would benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The race wouldn’t be revived again until 1990, when it switched names to the River’s Cup Canoe Race. “We’re returning to the heyday of the Russian River Rat Race,” said Karen Devan of KGO-TV, a race sponsor, in a May 16, 1990, article in The Press Democrat.

The River’s Cup races held throughout the ‘90s raised funds for local nonprofit Face to Face and other AIDS relief agencies and charities. The festival went dark again after 1998, and was reestablished once again in 2011 under the original name of the Healdsburg Water Carnival, which featured wine barrel races and a water parade led by a giant swan float. The last carnival was in 2017.

Check out the gallery above for photos of the ‘80s Russian River Rat Race and the century-old Healdsburg Water Carnival.