With the completion of an extra turbine at the Brilliant dam last fall, we've all been wondering if we would see the Brilliant Wave in its full glory again this year. Would water flowing through the new turbines on river left, instead of over the spillway on river right, damper the flow of the river and flatten out the wave? Well fortunately for us it's back this spring and as good as ever. With the arrival of Summer and its sunshine and30 degree weather, the river is finally on the rise and the wave is getting better and better each day.
For those of you who don't know, Brilliant is located on the Kootenay river, just upstream of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers confluence near Castlegar, BC. Brilliant is an incredible feature that forms whenever water is spilling from the dam 500 m upstream or now whenever there is water being pushed through the turbines. It can form anything from a small friendly hole to a huge trashy hole to a perfect green wave with lots of foam up top, all the way to a screaming fast wave that only a race boat could catch. Once the water gets too high then it will flush out and we head for the creeks, but this feature is normally in anywhere from two weeks to a month every spring and on and off throughout the winter. For now we are looking forward to a few days of great surfing this weekend, hopefully we'll see you out there.
Mike Grant Blunting
Mikkel 
Mikkel
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