I promise to never take breathing for granted

I did some whitewater rafting yesterday.

I went with a team of Boy Scouts. They were strong, and precise. We had a cracker jack team, and we were rowing like sychronized swimmers.

I was starboard lead, so I had a pretty good view.

The guide was obviously experienced, a bit cocky (they all are), and goaded us on with his stories about how crappy the last group of Scout were he rafted with.

That was like poking a bear- the boys had something to prove.

And our guide, Tater (is that a real name??) wanted an adventure.

He took us into a section of the river that I'm pretty sure they generally avoid. Class 4, 13,000 cfs.

Sitting in the bow, I saw it. It was huge.

There was a nice 6' crest we were going to climb, but there was a 15'er right behind it.

I remembering thinking, "Wow, it's hard to believe a raft like this can climb a wave that big", as I wedged my feet.

As we came over the first crest, I was looking down into a hydraulic between the 2 waves that was about the size of a car.

The boat dove deep into the hydraulic, and went end-over-end forward flipping onto the 15'er.

I was first in the water, and didn't take long to need air. I tried to trust the PFD, but felt rubber above me. I assumed it was the boat. Before I finished that thought, I hit something mighty hard (rock?), then bounced again (up?). Everything was orange, and I realized I was under the boat. Grabbed some air, then got sucked back down.

I have no idea how many times I tried surfacing after that- I remember hitting the bottom of the boat 4 more times, but now it was flat plastic- the boat had been righted, and I was under it, but also completely disoriented. The PFD kept trying to carry me up, but the boat kept me from being able to surface.

I don't panic easily, but I was out of ideas, and out of air. I decided it was time to stop fighting the river.

I tucked into a tight ball, and the next thing I knew the river spit me out over 100' from the boat.

I was spent. I just lay there on my back, coughing up water and spitting up in my own face. I didn't care. I had found some air.

The first thing I remember after I started thinking again was the sound of my 14 year old son shouting, "Dad, you OK?". I answered firmly, and confidently (trying to give him some assurance), "Yeah. I'm fine. Are you OK?".

Man it felt good to hear his voice!

The other adult in our boat was picked up by our boat. The 4 Scouts were picked up by another boat (and they finished out the trip with 11 in a 7 man boat).

I never made it back in the boat. I was much too far from them. Just floated and breathed, and listened occasionally to the guides shouting some swimming directions to me to avoid the rocks.

What did I learn?

• Don't fight the river

• Air is precious

• Kids and friends are more precious

• There IS such thing as a Peace that completely passes understanding

• Home is good

• I can't wait for my next trip!

So, how was YOUR weekend??

Glad you and everyone else was OK. Sounds like a wild ride.

Not even once. Humans do not belong anywhere near water, unless its in a warm bathtub.

Glad you and yours are OK.

Any time I'm around any big natural occurrence I'm in awe of how little nature respects our life.

Similar experience here. We did a canoe trip with my dumbass friends in college. On Farmington river in CT there are some class 3-4's, and the recon my buddies did completely missed this fact. Our friend with the PFD's was at his girlfriends house and was late, so we ditched him. Our canoe had three dudes and a huge cooler full of beer. We had three other canoes in the group... four or five miles was the most pleasant afternoon day drinking I've ever done... and by the time the river started talking to us, we were enjoying ourselves quite a little bit. I remember going around a bend and someone saying "dam's up ahead" from the bank, and us waving and continuing on. Then, we got a little separated- the lead three canoes disappeared around the next bend. Then I saw a buddy running up the river bank gesturing wildly for us to get out of the river. We were having none of that and yelled back, calling him a puss, as our boat entered the rapids. A twig the size of your thumb caused us to capsize. My two buddies completely bailed, and made it to the shore in short order. I tried- but couldn't get more than five feet toward the bank. Finally, in what seemed like minutes of fighting it, but was in reality probably only 10 seconds, went back to the boat, which, while upright, was full of water. I straddled it, hoping to ride out the chaos. Within seconds, I was thrown violently from the canoe, no PFD, into the heart of the rapids. High flow and shallow, it kept sucking me down to the bottom, and I kept banging my shins off of rocks, but could do nothing about it, couldn't move an inch from centerline. Cold water. All energy spent trying to get head above water. Cold water. Cold water cold water. Energy sapping, going and going, this has to stop. Maker, meet me. Bang bang gasp, bang bang gasp. Give in... just give in to it. Hard plastic and "GRAB ON". Last strength used to drape myself over the bow of a tiny olympic kayak. Olympic strength as he slowly dragged me from centerline and to the shore, and then let me have it. "Do you realize where you are? This is olympic training class rapids! You idiots are drunk with no pfds! People die in this very spot every year! Every year!"

So, once I recovered slightly, I was able to look at the situation- 50-100 yards downstream was a sort of a sluice- a dam with a 15' wide opening in the middle, a 15' drop, and a huge monolith at the bottom of the drop. That's where I was headed. That's where my head would have exploded like Gallagher's watermelons.

The fire department had shown up by this time, responding to a report of 4 empty canoes downstream. The bow of each absolutely destroyed from hitting the monolith.

So this- I'm not a religious man. Kayaker Dan was there when he wasn't. I don't remember his face, colors, or anything. Air is good. Cold is bad. Water is strong. Drunk+Rapids-PFD's=Death.

Glad you and all associated smallish people are OK. The guide should be flogged.

kazoospec wrote: Glad you and all associated smallish people are OK. The guide should be flogged.

Hmmm...

I hadn't really thought about it, because I wanted to like him, but you may have a point.

I never saw him after the trip. Guess he figured he wasn't going to get a tip on that ride.

Glad you all came through OK, that has to be one of my greatest fears when I was actively running white water in my younger days.

been there a couple times. another time got steered under a strainer and knocked out by a branch. i quit after that. my dad is hardcore whitewater kayak guy though. runs class 5 stuff. there is video of him running an 18' waterfall somewhere. i'm not doing that, and he's backed off a bit on the crazy stuff since he has grandkids now. but my dad deserves to be in the badass relative thread for his whitewater adventures.

Let me also say I'm glad you and your people all made it through in one piece. Water is nothing to mess with in any situation.

On our last rafting trip through the New river I was on the lead raft when we saw a drunken redneck with no PFD trying to swim across the river just ahead of us. He was floundering badly and by the time we got to him he was headed under for the 3rd time. He appreciated air too when I pulled him up. His drunken friends gave us beer and didn't understand how close he had been to death. Silly rednecks.

I watched the golf. Had no issues breathing.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Not even once. Humans do not belong anywhere near water, unless its in a warm bathtub.

I disagree, but whitewater rafting is one of those sports with a very poor danger/fun ratio.

Nice save. I've been there, but I didn't have any trouble getting kicked clear of the boat.

A minor moment of triumph, I ended up being the last man on the boat during one particularly violent motion.

That's me on the right before the two other guys got tossed out.

Saturday we roasted a 70lb pig and drank mas cerveza.

The Farmington does has some tricky bits. I swamped my kayak 3 times on the last trip. Idiot.

I kayak in the stuff that looks like glass. It hurts less.

I have been a few times, got tossed out on the New River once. Glad everyone is OK.

Glad to hear you're OK - what river was that on? I'm trying to see if I can remember a section like that on any of the east Tennessee rivers near the Georgia line, and I'm drawing a blank.

Glad you're ok! What did I do?

I smashed vinyl deck boards off of our front porch. My wife and I hate this porch.

What a pain in the butt. Most of the fasteners were rusted and broke. The two piece boards held lots of water. Whoever installed them didn't leave a gap between them, . Lots of mold, mildew, algae, and a few hornets nests.

After I had 225 square feet of boards off, it was late, and I could hear what sounded like a diesel bobcat running around. Apparently one of my neighbors has a diesel riding lawn mower for his half acre. Maybe I'm jealous, but it's probably overkill.

Saturday morning, I rented a ditch-witch trencher and ran new 1.25" pvc for the sump pump to the front yard so it could go to the ditch. $100 rental fee and a half hour of trenching later, if that, I had the trencher loaded up and returned. Totally worth the money.

I'll have to make a dump run after cutting the vinyl down to fit in the trailer.

Happy Fathers Day to me!

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

It's the Chattahoochee, in Columbus GA (Phenix City AL).

It's a man made urban whitewater. I had no idea such a thing existed.

Here's a video aptly named "Trauma Tuesday"

Trauma Tuesday

It's the opening day (about 2 years ago). The guides were inexperienced, no one had ever rafted it, and the water level was too high. It's much better now (less chaotic).

The video is unbelievable, and ridiculous in it's stupidity. It's a good laugh, but only because no one got hurt (no thanks to the "pros" who planned that day).

BTW, that's not the spot I went under.

But we did go through there.

Whitewater is so much fun. I miss my big river. Before I moved to Colorado, I could carry my kayak to the beach at the end of the block, paddle downstream and play on the surfing waves before paddling home. Weekends were spent running the Ottawa, my favorite river anywhere. It's the biggest regret I have about living out here, I'll never be able to afford a house in a location like that again. The kayaks are in the shed and haven't been wet for years.

Glad it all worked out - sounds like a pretty wild ride. I've had my moments in the green room, as we called it. When you get deep enough under the rapids, it all goes quiet.

My weekend was spent driving home from Wyoming, where I'd been offline and away. Aaaah.

I have been rafting a few times. I have stayed with more gentle stuff. A few years ago I went down the American River near Sacramento with my brother and a couple of his buddies. We got to the largest rapids on the trip. I was sitting on the left side of the raft. It turned right quickly. To my surprise I felt myself being pulled out of the raft. I don't know why but I was super calm. My thought was, "I am going in. Get your feet free so you don't tear up knees while you go over the edge (of the raft)." I got pulled down in the water so I focused getting my arms near my head to protect it. After 20 to 30 seconds, I popped up in calm water downstream. My first though was, "Where are my sunglasses?" they were prescription and I didn't want to lose them. I realized they were on my face still. My hat was still on my head. So I looked around, spotted my boat, swam over and my brother helped my back in.

Enough happens at this obstacle in the river, there was a commercial photographer capturing every thing that happened there. We bought the pictures and in them you can see frame by frame how the guy sitting behind me started to fall out, went into panic mode grabbing at anything, got a hand on me and pulled me in with him.

I got lucky. The only harm done was some water up my nose.

SVreX wrote: In reply to MadScientistMatt: It's the Chattahoochee, in Columbus GA (Phenix City AL). It's a man made urban whitewater. I had no idea such a thing existed. Here's a video aptly named "Trauma Tuesday" Trauma Tuesday It's the opening day (about 2 years ago). The guides were inexperienced, no one had ever rafted it, and the water level was too high. It's much better now (less chaotic). The video is unbelievable, and ridiculous in it's stupidity. It's a good laugh, but only because no one got hurt (no thanks to the "pros" who planned that day).

While I am a strong believer in stupidity and dodged bullets making the best campfire stories later in life, that mass pile-up on the river was just stupid on some ones part. I fail to see how nobody died that day.

Glad it turned out as a good story instead of tragic day.