DOWN A CRAZY RIVER

...with practically everybody. Blue skies may be up above next week for 500 contestants and 25,000 spectators, but white water will be down below for the 20th running of the Hudson River Derby. Kayakers and canoeists will race in slalom and downriver events, exuberant throngs will crowd the banks cheering them on and the residents of North River and North Creek will hope to survive the annual madness one more time

For all the ups and downs and ins and outs of the rapids, humiliation and extreme sogginess are the worst that the paddlers have to face.

It's hard to say who enjoys the races the most, the contestants or the spectators. What the three canoeists above are enjoying is anybody's guess.

FIVE PHOTOS

MANNY MILLAN & AL SZABO