The look of a wildwater boat is a head-scratcher. The canoes and kayaks are long and narrow — especially when compared to the short stubs of kayaks used in whitewater paddling — with a funny shape like a squid head on the back end.

Their form may surprise paddlers in the United States but not in Europe, where wildwater paddling is a popular sport. So much so that children as young as 10 compete, clubs abound, and competitions are televised on largescreen TVs set up at racing venues.

Bellingham paddlers Mike Baker, 47, and Rich Roehner, 49, would like to see the sport grow in Whatcom County. The two competed at the World Cup June 9-24 in Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy. Despite not getting into a tandem wildwater canoe until mid- January, the two still placed a respectable 12 out of 18 teams in their category, which was CII Men.

That’s against paddlers who were sometimes half their age, had been paddling wildwater for years and were semi-professional. In comparison, Baker says he and Roehner are “serious amateurs.”

Upon their return, they talked to The Bellingham Herald about the difference between whitewater and wildwater paddling, why they decided to compete, and where they hope to go from here.

What is wildwater racing? It’s done in the roiling whitewater of a river. The objective is to run class 2 to class 4 rapids from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. There are no man-made gates to navigate as in the case of slalom courses for whitewater kayaking. “I love that simplicity,” says Baker, a teacher at Home- Port Learning Center, a small alternative school with a maritime theme.

Your boat can hit rocks or slam into other things in the river. It doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you clocked the fastest time.

“You want to stay in the fast water. You’re trying to find the fastest conveyor belt and stay on it, be paddling through it, be pulling yourself down to your destination,” Baker says.

Paddlers can race in single kayaks, as well as single or double canoes. Racers can paddle down a river in two types of races — classics, which are about 3 miles in length and take 10-25 minutes, or sprints of 500 to 1,000 meters that last 90 seconds to three minutes.

“Nearly all racers will do both sprints and classics,” Baker says.

About those boats … They’re rudderless and built to slice through rapids like a knife, which explains their peculiar shape. They’re longer and narrower than many of the other boats used for river running; the squid-like shape is the fattest part of the wildwater boat, which tapers as much as possible from that part on to help the kayak or canoe go down a river faster while maintaining as much stability as possible.

A recreational whitewater kayak, for example, is about half as long as a wildwater boat.

Roehner says of traditional whitewater boats: “They’re short and they spin fast. They can turn fast but they’re very hard to paddle in a straight line. They weigh a lot and they go slow.”

While the narrower width of a wildwater boat makes it faster, the trade-off is in stability. “You have to have very good balance. These boats are very, very tippy,” Baker says.

One other difference: In a wildwater canoe, which looks like a kayak, paddlers must kneel. “They’re very low. We can feel our heels on our rear-ends,” Baker says.

History of team Baker-Roehner: The two experienced canoeists and kayakers met while paddling on Whatcom Creek. Roehner was in a wildwater boat.

Roehner had switched to wildwater kayaking in 2002 when he moved to Bellingham from Alaska, where the sport was popular, and was competing at the regional and national levels.

Roehner wanted to compete in the World Cup but failed to qualify for the U.S. team in the division he was in at that time, Men’s K1, because it was extremely competitive. Not so with the CII division, so Roehner hit on the idea of qualifying in that division after seeing Baker’s technique and ability.

They began training together in mid-January. In their first year as a wildwater team, the two have gone to the World Cup competition, the Canadian nationals, the Cedar River race near Renton, the Green River run near Tacoma and the U.S. team trials in Pennsylvania.

Why the sport is more popular in Europe: “They’re a little bit more organized there. I think the club mentality is a little stronger there. They get kids in sooner. Also, there are a lot of races because there are so many clubs,” Baker says.

He remembers seeing two bigscreen TVs in downtown Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, showing every part of the race course during the World Cup.

Roehner recalls seeing competitors as young as 10 paddling in the German nationals in Austria, where the pair had gone to train for their World Cup races. “There’s a reason why the Europeans are a little ahead of the U.S. in that

sport,” says the chemical engineer.

Why they like wildwater racing: “Trying to run a river as fast as you can is a pretty interesting game,” says Roehner.

The next step: Roehner and Baker will continue to compete, though getting the funding to travel to Europe can be a daunting task.

The two also want to bring more local paddlers into the sport, with Roehner saying he’d like to bring a contingent to the 2009 World Cup in Tasmania, Australia.

“There’s definitely the talent pool here. Some of the best paddlers in the country live here in Bellingham,” Roehner says. “We’ve just got to convert them over to paddling wildwater.”