Surprise! Paddlers & boaters got ‘once in a lifetime’ view of historic KC Current opener

When Christy Kurtz took her group of paddlers out on the Missouri River on Saturday for the first time in 2024, she earmarked a sandbar directly across from CPKC Stadium as the perfect lunch spot, with an opportunity to take in the inaugural match from a different point of view.

When the group kayaked up to the sandbar, Kurtz realized she wasn’t the only one with the idea. Roger Guibor-MacBride and a few friends had used a boat and pulled up on the sandbar, where they sat for most of the game.

Together, the group ate, talked and took in the sounds and sights of the game, from the flyover conducted by an all-female team from the Whiteman Air Force Base to the train horn and crowd roar after any of the Current’s five goals.

“It was perfect,” Kurtz told The Star. “What’s crazy is that there’s normally not that great sandbar there. I have never seen that sandbar there anytime I’ve paddled by. Ever.”

Guibor-MacBride told The Star that paying tribute to the occasion in his own fashion — on the river — was part of his “civic duty.” He took great pride in what CPKC Stadium means for women and the city, crediting the Longs (Angie and Chris) and Mahomeses (Brittany and Patrick) for helping make Kansas City an example to follow.

“For all the stupidity going on in the world and in our own country, we’re being good examples,” Guibor-MacBride said.

Kurtz is the founder and manager of Paddle KC, a paddling club that conducts over 150 excursions annually. The club paddles any of the Kansas City-area waterways and sometimes even farther out. Saturday was their first trip on the Missouri River since last fall.

Sights of kayakers and paddlers became customary in sports when the San Francisco Giants opened Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) on the San Francisco Bay. Fans flock to McCovey Cove for a unique party atmosphere and ballgame viewing experience — and a hope of catching a “splash hit” if a left-handed batter with enough power can, literally, knock one out of the park.

With the eventual release of water from dams and pools further north in the Missouri River watershed, that sandbar is bound to go away soon.

“That was probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Kurtz said.

For others who choose to paddle the river, Kurtz encourages them to go with safety-trained groups, especially if they’re new to the Missouri River.

“When things go bad on the ‘Big Muddy,’ they can go deadly fast,” Kurtz said.

Guibor-MacBride and Kurtz are good friends, and their convergence on that sandbar was completely unplanned. Both said they’ve had a lot of crazy adventures over the years.

In October 2023, they helped a Missouri man set the Guinness World Record for the longest distance float in a pumpkin. Guibor-MacBride, in his boat, and Kurtz, in her kayak, served as safety and support for Steve Kueny, who floated 38 miles down the Missouri in a 1,293-pound pumpkin.

Guibor-MacBride calls himself a river rat, getting out on the river every day when possible, either in his pontoon or speedboat. He’s more than willing to take others out on the Missouri River, and he even took members of the Kansas City Current organization out on his pontoon to see the waterways that he and others have worked to protect and conserve for so long.

“We are very passionate about bringing more people to the river,” Guibor-MacBride said. “We’re trying to, safely, get people to reengage on truly our best natural resource we have.”

As a “Stream Team #2560” member, Guibor-MacBride and others take it upon themselves to help keep the Kansas City stretch of the Missouri River clean.

Stream Teams were established in 1989 by the Missouri Department of Conservation and others. These teams provide education, stewardship and advocacy for Missouri’s more than 110,000 miles of flowing waterways.

With CPKC Stadium’s placement along the riverfront, Kurtz and Guibor-MacBride are excited to see what possibilities more development offers.

“I am enthused to see more entertainment coming down by the river because the river is such an integral part of (our) commerce and the history of the state,” Kurtz said. “We haven’t really leveraged that at all in Kansas City. You look at Davenport and St. Louis and they’ve got a lot of entertainment going on. So I’m hoping this is the beginning.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published March 20, 2024 at 6:00 AM.