The 2016 Bass Lake Triathlon was a particularly great event this year due to the water levels in the lake being full. Please enjoy a visual feast courtesy of Annie Starkey Photography and the Visit Yosemite Madera County.

Heroes Day Big and Little was fantastic! The special day was for Valley Children’s Patients and all US Military. Please enjoy the video courtesy of Philip K. Ireland of eMotion Web Video 760-481-9245 www.emotionwebvideo.com.

Heroes day Big and Little is basically taking veterans with disabilities and children with disabilities and allowing them to have a water sports day here completely free at Bass Lake.

It’s actually a great combo because the kids can see adults who are very similar to them and see what it would be like for them as an adult with disabilities still out engaging with the community being on the water interacting with peers socializing so they can see that that can be them when they’re older.

My favorite part of today was going on the tubes. It was going really fast and you could like bounce off your seat and stuff and you can get water on you.

These kids are very often sitting on the sidelines because of their disability. It kind of keeps them from participating in a lot of activities because you don’t know what to do, or how to accommodate them, and so what this day does it puts them first. It’s all about them. So they get first dibs. They have adults and volunteers who know how to work with them and get them to be able to access the kayaks, the boat rides, the jet skis. The day is for them and so it’s really nice, all the attention is on them. That’s our goal.

Many of the US servicemen returning oftentimes need some decompression time. This is an opportunity to kind of come back into everyday life in reality. The Valley Children’s patients, who may have had some type of a of a health problem or or trauma, they also need that stress relief and the irony is that each group helps each other.

Kind of completely into the exercises and keep doing things very well. It’s like the most important thing in the world to me, because I am celebrating on heroes day and i’m celebrating all the veterans that have passed and are still here fighting.

The community completely came together and really gave the same thing that we gave, which was an opportunity for the people that don’t get to enjoy this on a daily basis to go out there and have fun and have fun on us and have it carefree. The drivers are provided. The tube. Everything. Just get out there for some laughs. Have some fun and have a great day.

Published on Jun 7, 2016

They stocked the lake today. Catch and release. #basslakewatersports #basslake #2016 #triathlon #basslaketriathlon #bassfishing #hotbass #lakelife

A video posted by Bass Lake Watersports (@basslakewatersports) on Jun 4, 2016 at 10:43pm PDT