The WISP mountain whitewater course was truly designed with the family in mind from beginning to end. They have affordable usage rates which which include everything from one hour rides at Class II to III rapids which is a babbling brook to all day kayak training in class IV rapids which can be dangerous.
The amazing thing about well planned adventures is that they can include everyone. My wife discovered this venue so she oped to be included. As I structured the event, I included my wife, my granddaughter and my son-in-law in the first run and signed them up for one hour of Class II to III. The following picture says it all.
They all look happy and enjoyed the thrills. After about 40 minute, Dolores decided to quit because of the biting cold. It was about 50 degrees out and you were covered with mist and water from waves and the wind was about 10 miles an hour. Still she had a great time and enjoyed it as did Carson and Cayla.
The second run was scheduled for two hours of Class III to IV rapids where you can run the course about 6 times. The following picture was taken on the first or second run and everybody is all smiles. Amazingly we did not know that our picture was being taken and those smiles are natural.
In the third round, they did a Jackass move called surfing which bares no relation to leisurely riding the crest of a wave with skill and determination. In whitewater rafting, you stick the nose of the craft into a rapid and paddle like mad. The move takes skill and high energy and there is no particular thrill involved like riding the crest of a 6 foot trailing swell in an ocean going kayak.
While engaged in this so called surfing using all your power to go up stream, the inevitable happened, I got tossed out of the raft and went under. I can’t believe that my wife actually captured the sequence on our old and slow digital camera.
OOPs we lost John and everybody is looking for him in the rapids. Take note the safety spotter on the shoreline in the first two pictures.
The dip under the rapids was about 12 feet deep and when I didn’t pop up, the spotter started to run downstream apparently for body recovery.
I finally popped up and some non- employees came to the rescue while my granddaughters wait and watch. Take note that the spotter and my raft had give up on finding me in this area and are not in the picture.
My heros who went down stream for body recovery return upstream to claim me.
I get back in the raft for another trip around.
I really wasn’t happy about this bath because of the chill factor. I had dressed with care wearing underwear, bicycle shorts (to support that sometimes painful groin tendon), pants and a wet suit and boots. On top, I had a tee shirt, long sleeve pull over, a nylon pullover and a wind breaker. The joke was I stayed down so long because I had so much wet clothing weighting me down.
I explained, that my training held me down. When thrown in the open ocean from a craft, the rules are relax, head for the light, save your energy and let the life preserver do the work. What I forgot was I was under a water fall and the current was driving me down and without some effort on my part, I was never going to surface.
I went around one more time and then go out. My daughter thanked me for the advice as they were dumped on the next run and she is a powerful trained swimmer. She first moved to get out of the current while looking for the light and had a much easier time.
I can’t help but believe our dunking was on purpose as we quit early and our guide who showed up late could leave early as we were his last run of the day. Perhaps management should pay the guides by the number of successful times they navigate the course and if they lose a tourist out of the boat, they don’t get paid for the run.
I’m not turned off on white water rafting, I’m simply turned off by a guide who dumped every passenger into the water while staying dry himself. I still plan on doing the real deal in the next couple of years.
Tags: dream, family, Fear, health, Kayaking, life, lifestyle, longevity, parenting, seniors, sports, travel, Whitewater, Whitewater Rafting
