River Boarding or You want me to do What!!!!
Ah this post has been a long time coming. I meant to do it right after I got back from my trip but I have not had any time until now. Ok so by now most of you know that my friend Paul is getting married on the 6th of August. For his bachelor party he wanted to do something different, don’t aks me why he had the right to plan his own bachelor party but he did. So he decided we where going River Boarding with this Company called Esprit. So incase you don’t know what river boarding is let me explain the details. You know how sometimes people like to go white water rafting. Well someone one day must have though well that looks like fun but that raft is so cramped why don’t I just get this oversized novelty flutter board and jump right in. Ta Da, River boarding was born.
The day started out nice and sunny, we got up for breakfast and where instructed as to what we where going to be doing for the day. I went over picked up a set of fins and a wet suite ( $10 extra fro the suite but well worth it of you like not being cut up by rocks ). We got on the bus at 8 am and they took us on a nice 1h dive to the entry point. The safety lecture we received on the way was very informative describing what to do if we fell out of the raft, how to handle ourselves in the raft and how to get the hell out of the rapids if we find ourselves stuck in them. Of course this was all pointless as we where trying to swim in the rapids. Out River board guide simply said whatever you do don’t let go of the board and that was about it.
Now if I describe the entire day then this post will end up being several pages longer than I want to type so let me just point out the highlights. The first set of rapids where supposed to get the boarders and rafters a bit of practice in easier water. Let me describe what I remember of the first rapid. It when something like this.
Ok now there where quite a few rapids that day but there was only 1 I remembered the name of, “The Dragons Tongue”. I remember this one cause it’s the only one we ere not allowed to go down on boards. Class 5 rapid with a huge drop into a middle pool then another smaller drop. At the bottom however was a place where we where allowed to go surfing. At some points where water flows very fast over a shallow ledge you get a standing wave forming you can surf. That is what is depicted on the bottom of the web page I linked to. My best time is around 20 seconds on the wave, I was able to get on to my knees and kneel on the board, then the front of the board bit into the water and I was thrown into the water. Lot’s of fun.
Ok 3 big memory, the first rapid has a set of 3 features. We where to hit 2 of them as the third was too dangerous, that feature was named the something like the Greyhound shredder and consisted of a bunch of sharp rocks pointing out of the water. We hit the first wave and were instructed to turn hard right to take the second channel as the afore mentioned sharp pointy rocks where in the left hand channel. Two things scared the Shit out of me here first off was the island I did not see separating the channels until the last min. barely missing on my way though. Second was the biggest wave of the day that picked me up and launched me through he air flipping me upside down in the process, I was able to get back on my board quickly by this point however as I have had some practice before this point. I think every one was thrown off their boards at this point and it was the thing they decided to show us in the video they made during the day. And if we wanted a copy of this video on a bright and shiny CD it would only cost us the small sum of $50. Aren’t they generous.
Anyway I survived the day and had one of the best adventures of my life. This is defiantly not something for everyone, I would recommend it only to very good swimmers but if you are ever up fore and awesome challenge I defiantly recommend River boarding over rafting, who needs a boat when you have a chunk of Styrofoam with handles.
The day started out nice and sunny, we got up for breakfast and where instructed as to what we where going to be doing for the day. I went over picked up a set of fins and a wet suite ( $10 extra fro the suite but well worth it of you like not being cut up by rocks ). We got on the bus at 8 am and they took us on a nice 1h dive to the entry point. The safety lecture we received on the way was very informative describing what to do if we fell out of the raft, how to handle ourselves in the raft and how to get the hell out of the rapids if we find ourselves stuck in them. Of course this was all pointless as we where trying to swim in the rapids. Out River board guide simply said whatever you do don’t let go of the board and that was about it.
Now if I describe the entire day then this post will end up being several pages longer than I want to type so let me just point out the highlights. The first set of rapids where supposed to get the boarders and rafters a bit of practice in easier water. Let me describe what I remember of the first rapid. It when something like this.
Hmm I don’t se anything up ahead but I hear them, I wonder where they are......... Ah the water seems to drop up ahead that must be them........Oh that sure looks like a steep drop off............FUCK What the hell am I doing, why am I in the Ottawa river gripping a freaking piece of foam for dear life...........Big Wave.......Shit I just fell off of the piece of foam, must remember how to get back on........Im being spun around, im going to die aren’t I........Ah I made it back on, flat water again, must pass out now.......................That was fun let’s do it again.
Ok now there where quite a few rapids that day but there was only 1 I remembered the name of, “The Dragons Tongue”. I remember this one cause it’s the only one we ere not allowed to go down on boards. Class 5 rapid with a huge drop into a middle pool then another smaller drop. At the bottom however was a place where we where allowed to go surfing. At some points where water flows very fast over a shallow ledge you get a standing wave forming you can surf. That is what is depicted on the bottom of the web page I linked to. My best time is around 20 seconds on the wave, I was able to get on to my knees and kneel on the board, then the front of the board bit into the water and I was thrown into the water. Lot’s of fun.
Ok 3 big memory, the first rapid has a set of 3 features. We where to hit 2 of them as the third was too dangerous, that feature was named the something like the Greyhound shredder and consisted of a bunch of sharp rocks pointing out of the water. We hit the first wave and were instructed to turn hard right to take the second channel as the afore mentioned sharp pointy rocks where in the left hand channel. Two things scared the Shit out of me here first off was the island I did not see separating the channels until the last min. barely missing on my way though. Second was the biggest wave of the day that picked me up and launched me through he air flipping me upside down in the process, I was able to get back on my board quickly by this point however as I have had some practice before this point. I think every one was thrown off their boards at this point and it was the thing they decided to show us in the video they made during the day. And if we wanted a copy of this video on a bright and shiny CD it would only cost us the small sum of $50. Aren’t they generous.
Anyway I survived the day and had one of the best adventures of my life. This is defiantly not something for everyone, I would recommend it only to very good swimmers but if you are ever up fore and awesome challenge I defiantly recommend River boarding over rafting, who needs a boat when you have a chunk of Styrofoam with handles.
posted by Shawn Penson at
12:46 p.m.
2 Comments:
Holy jumping bajeezus! How do you steer one of those things?? Man that sounds like it was a crazy load of fun. Just good you managed to avoid the sharp pointy rocks, but I don't think they would have stopped you :P
By
frank, at 2:02 p.m.
Well you Steer in 3 ways.
1. You can swim in a direction with your fins.
2. You can use your fins as Rudders in fast water.
3. You can lean on the edges of your obard the way you would a surf board or snow board.
The nice thing about the board is that the undersided is amde of a hard plastic teflon type material so you can put it between you and the rocks to protect you. If you cant avoid a rock you just deflect off of it.
By
Shawn Penson, at 9:36 a.m.
Post a Comment
<< Home