UPDATE: New Healdsburg Water Carnival Photos Added to Gallery

A Santa Rosa man and his family placed in three categories in the bathing suit contest Saturday, while a heavily bearded man from Cloverdale took top honors in the Whiskeroo challenge.

"My wife said she was going to dress up, so I said 'I'm going to do something different,'" said Shad Eddleman of Santa Rosa, who won best male bathing suit wearing a homemade cardboard barrel outfit.

He also tied with female bathing suit winner Hanna Bauer of Graton for best overall bathing suit, and -- with wife Desiree and daughter Iowyn, 7 -- for best family bathing suits. 

Edwin Ellis of Cloverdale and Frank Rivers of Healdsburg took top honors for best real beard and best moustache, respectively.

Bathing Suits and Whiskeroo contests were only two of many attractions at Saturday's successful revival of a long-ago tradition of family fun on the Russian River at and

"This is great," said Healdsburg children's book author "So many people are getting ideas for things to add next year.

"The day couldn't have been more perfect," Cotler added. "The weather was perfect -- the floats, the swan -- just great."

Crowd estimates varied, since people were jammed all along on two bridges to watch the parade, at two beach areas and inside the park area itself. Park Manager Bert Whitaker said he thought as many as 3,500 people were at all locations, while earlier estimates on parade spectators were at about 1,000.

"Not bad for a first stab at it," Whitaker said of the event, the first revival of the Healdsburg water carnival on the Russian River since the original event  more than 100 years ago. "We're very pleased -- it's a very good turnout -- it's incredible."

Undisputed queen for the day was a replica of the  swan float in the original event circa 1908.

"I saw a picture of the swan in the paper and I thought it would be fun to come here," said Nanci Hall of Windsor, who, with granddaughter Michaela, 10, were among the first group Saturday to take a swan ride.

Sandy, who offered rides throughout the day, was built over the past five months by volunteers from Team Swan: Shaun McCaffery, Ron Keeley, Rick Mercer, Isaac Hastings, Adam Burns, Patti Mercier and Dave Honer, Whitaker said. Sandy will also make an appearance at next week's Handcar Regatta in Santa Rosa.

Recreated Sandy is a fiberglass and Styrofoam float-sized bird with an electric motor and capacity of six riders. has a model of the original swan float, which was used by Team Swan to design Sandy.

All money raised during the carnival will go to the

"I'd like to see it restored to some of its previous glory," said Healdsburg City Councilman Gary Plass, noting that he used to walk to the beach every day as a child. "This is where I learned to swim."

Once a summer destination for hundreds of swimmers and sunbathers, attendance at the beach has fallen off in recent years as the facility went into decline, concessions closed, swimming classes ended and the water level decreased, Plass said.

The beach was rescued from further decline this year by a city-county Under McGuire's leadership, Healdsburg struck a deal with the county, with the city putting up $50,000 this year to build the dam and do emergency repairs; the county will continue work on further maintenance.

"This is a great start," Plass said of the carnival and plans to upgrade the beach. "The cooperatiion between the city and county has really been outstanding."

Plass said a new dam would inevitably have to be built at some point -- at an estimated cost of up to $2.5 million.

McGuire has been the driving force behind the revival of community activities on the river this year, vowing at the first river event in May -- -- that 2011 would be the year the Memorial Beach and the river come back to life.

Healdsburg civic volunteer Mel Amato, who rom demolition, said Saturday's event was a "great privilege to be able to participate in something that goes so far back in history," he said.

Seismic upgrades on the bridge, originally planned for this summer, are now set to take place in 2012, Amato said.

"This is a great event," Amato said. "It's great to see it."

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