[Other Sport] Anyone been white water rafting?

[Billy in Bristol]

Going to have a go a week Friday at the Olympic course.

Anyone else been?

 

[AZ Gull]

Going to have a go a week Friday at the Olympic course.

Anyone else been?

There is decent rafting on the Salt River here in Arizona (depending upon the amount of snowpack we get during the winter).

I've been a few times, this pic was from my first experience which is 12 years ago now:-

 

[Bedsex]

I’ve done the white water rafting at Lea Valley, although it was just before the London Olympics, so must’ve been 9 years ago now. I recall it was really good fun, right up until the point we capsized, I got dragged under the upturned raft, then swept down 2 sets of rapids before I could clamber out. I ended up spraining my ankle and had to get carted off to the medical centre in a golf buggy, much to the amusement of my raft mates who had all got back into the raft by that point.

So, I didn’t have that great an experience of it, but everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves.

Have fun!

 

[grubbyhands]

Yup! 1998 in Queensland Australia on ,I think ,the Baron River and 2004 in Maine on a normally dead flat river downstream from a hydro-electric dam. The rafting company had an agreement to be in the river at 10 o'clock when they opened the gates / sluices and the river then became a seething cauldron of bonkers white water. Bloody brilliant,hang on though!

 

[Deleted member 2719]

I have been on the Arun in a raft, although there was no naturally formed white water, once we dug those oars in, I like to think we created loads.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Yes,I've been White Water rafting.
Fantastic experience.
I'm not sure if it's still worked out by "grades"but it used to be the case that the turbulence of the river was graded,so grade 1 was a flatish river and grade 6 I think was the maximum which was the really extreme water.
I've only done up to grade 5 which was more than enough adrenaline for me.
Grades 1 to 4 are fantastic and 5 was a magnificent experience but 6 was pushing it a bit far for me,but it may be ok at the Olympic course.
Pay attention at the briefing and listen to your guide in the boat and follow his or her instructions and you will have a great time.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Went to Vegas for my 40th specifically to do white water rafting down the Grand Canyon, but misjudged the timings to get the benefit.
My birthday. Is in Feb and the earliest you can white water is April, so that’s when we went, but didn’t realise the river is at its highest due to the excess water coming off the mountains during the winter months, so the “rapids” were more like little humps.
We also didn’t realise how cold it would be that time of year, especially when you get hit with a face full of water!

It took us couple of hours to do the trip to the rendezvous point where the helicopter takes you back up to top, but because he wind was picking up they said they might have to cancel the helicopter and it will be another couple of hours down the river to an alternative pick up point.

Thankfully all was ok and we got picked up.

 

[Bakero]

I've done it a couple of times. Once in Slovenia and once in Ecuador. Twas a great laugh on both occasions.

 

[Hampster Gull]

Rangitikei River, New Zealand. Superb, one part grade 5. Only occasionally thought i would die

 

[AmexRuislip]

Have been kayaking down the Cuckmere, back in the day as a yoof.
Two of us went beyond the delta, was shouted at by the instructor to return pretty sharpish, as the current was very lively

 

[Dave the OAP]

Yes. Nearly died on the national long course on the river Trent in Nottingham.

Didn’t realise that the poles that hand down and you all steer through are bloody hard poles and one of the reasons why you wear a helmet..lol

But they took us all down this course and the boat almost tipped over, I went over the side ( with life jacket and wet suit on) and as I was fighting my way back up one of my colleagues went over the side and landed on me and I went down again.....finally came back up after hitting one of the rocks and dragged myself to the bank and hyperventilated for about 20 minutes.

Never again.

But have a good time mate.

 

[Wellesley]

Getting bored of these Ben White threads.

 

[Machiavelli]

Yes, I did it a long, long time ago in Costa Rica. It was thrilling. During quieter passages, we just soaked up the jungle, and then it gets broken up by exhilirating moments that sometimes extend way beyond moments. Only done it once, but it was memorable.

 

[Billy in Bristol]

I will try and survive seems good fun for £60 plus VAT.

 

[Boys 9d]

About 15 years ago I went on an adventure weekend based on Quillan, France on the edge of the Pyrenees. Mv choice of events was pot holing and white water rafting. Following a consultation with my wife of which I was unaware, in a relatively calm stretch of the river the instructor pushed me into the water so that the rest of the"crew" could practice rescuing me before we arrived at the wild water.

 

[Marty McFly]

A mate of mine lost and a tooth, and another broke a finger. Is good fun though!

 

[Goldstone1976]

Just outside Whistler, BC. Several times, grades 3-5. Utterly brilliant.

Always exhilarating, always very tiring, frequently scary.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Yes in China but from what I did it wasn’t perhaps quite as extreme as most places whilst still counting. I’ve also done the extreme thing in kayaks so the white water rafting was good fun but less of a shock. The teamwork aspect is likely to be the best or most frustrating aspect depending on who you go with and how lucky you are if with random people.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

I was working for Intel in Portland Oregon and they took us white water rafting on the Deschutes River as part of a team building exercise. Bloody great day out with a real mix of ages and abilities, first time I've ever really enjoyed a team building day.

 

[Yes Chef]

I done it along the Zambezi near Victoria Falls on the Zambia / Zimbabwe border. Fantastic day out.

n. b. Victoria Falls is not one of the rapids