(energetic music) -[Narrator] Surfing has been around for hundreds of years.

(energetic music) But it's only recently become possible to surf the north fork of the Elkhorn River.

(energetic music) Yes, you can actually surf the Elkhorn River in Norfolk, Nebraska.

-[Nathan] The surf feature is very popular for surfers that come from all over the country.

They change their routes if they're traveling.

A surfer from Nevada was visiting some family in Sioux Falls, brought a surfboard and came over here and went surfing.

-[Narrator] Those visits are starting to add up.

Bringing new faces and tourism dollars to Norfolk as more people discover the park.

-[Nathan] National Geographic ran an article about river surfing in the Midwest and how it's starting to take off.

- We can tell that they're coming.

They're using the rapids, or using the park in some capacity, and they're also coming downtown and using the restaurants.

-[Narrator] The north fork of the Elkhorn River cuts through downtown Norfolk, and now it's home to Nebraska's only urban whitewater park.

(groovy music) A couple of key things that made this possible included the right geography and the vision of people like former Mayor Josh Moenning.

-[Josh] To me, the river was always a resource.

I mean, the river gave the community life.

(watery music) -[Narrator] Josh grew up in the area and moved to Norfolk after college.

He served on the city council for 12 years.

Eight of those as mayor.

-[Josh] I don't think the the formula for good community development or development of anything otherwise is all that terribly complicated.

It's being open to new ideas and new ways of doing things and adding new people around the table.

(upbeat music) Having grown up in the area, seeing things not as they were, but how they could be.

That's a perspective that fueled me.

(upbeat music) -[female] Go straight.

Don't fall over.

(water rushing) -[Narrator] This is what happens when a community rolls up its collective sleeves and decides it's time to do big things.

-[Nathan] We want people to play outside.

It's very good for your health and well-being and improves your quality of life while you're doing it.

And that form of recreation is very important, I think, to a community.

-[Narrator] The $17 million riverfront project was largely funded through public private partnerships, donations and grants.

Taxpayer dollars paid for the spillway removal, a new bridge and a roundabout.

-[Josh] The project dovetailed nicely with a renewed desire to build up downtown Norfolk.

(groovy music) When we started to talk about the design of this, we worked with a group called Riverwise out of Colorado, and they said, we need sufficient flows, we need an elevation drop and then proximity to an urban core.

(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Riverwise designed a series of drops that use the river's natural flow to create surfable water.

Built for both safety and recreation.

(water rushing) It's a modern solution on a river that's long challenged the town.

(upbeat music) Since Norfolk's founding in the 1860s.

It has endured more than a dozen major floods.

(serene music) One in the 1960s devastated the town's historic Johnson Park, which never fully recovered.

(serene music) Around that time, the local natural resources district built flood control structures to help stabilize water levels through the town.

(serene music) A decade later, the NRD proposed turning the Elkhorn River into a linear park through Norfolk.

But the plan never got off the ground.

-[Josh] When I became mayor, this project made a lot of sense to me.

It was not only about revitalization of the riverfront.

It was about bringing new life and energy to our community, and turning what people had considered a liability into, once again, a point of community pride.

(water rushing) -[Narrator] And now flood gates installed in the 1960s help regulate the flow in the whitewater park.

-[Nathan] That was a very wise move, because you can open and close those based on how much water is flowing through town.

And by doing that, we have optimal flow for recreation, which is really unique.

Not many places can do that.

-[Narrator] And it's all free.

There's no charge to use the whitewater park.

It's open to anyone and everyone.

(upbeat music) -[Josh] To see neighborhood kids being there, enjoying not only the river, but new greenspace and basketball and ice skating.

There was a lot of patience, persistence and education involved and communicating why this is important.

(upbeat music) I knew that once it got off the ground, it could be a real benefit to the entire community, and that it would turn out to be a good thing.

(upbeat music)