We went white water rafting on the weekend with the River Run rafting. 12 of us ventured forth split between two 6 person rafts on an adventure down the Ottawa river. It rained during the ride which only added to the fun and fear.

With all the rain, the river had risen quite a bit, and our first drop into the rapids felt like falling from 5 feet and slamming into a water wall. That woke us up, and those with contacts were surprised to still have them.

You don’t need to be certain size to enjoy rafting, you simply need a certain ferocity to risk life and limb to meet the rapids head on. We flipped twice, and I found myself underneath the raft both times which was a bit like raising to the surface of a lake only to find it frozen. Dark and scary. After swallowing both water and panic, I was to able to get out from under boat and then hug my knees while flying down the river to catch the rope that was thrown out to meet me.

I was impressed by all safety measures around the area. Along with wearing an helmet and life jacket, I felt secure that there were guides along the shore as well as ones in the water on solo kayaks ready to assist us.

Before setting out, we did have a brief training session which came in handy several times when getting dunked, and I remembered to flip over my back, and ride the current. Supposedly, the number one cause of death in white water is by standing up as you can easily get caught in debris (and other fallen rafters who decided to stand up) on the bottom and drown.

In many of the quieter moments on the river during our 4 hour descent we had the opportunity to introduces ourselves and discuss world affairs and other environment concerns like increases in hydro dams that could threaten the river.

At night, we were provided with a dinner beneath the covered patio which had live music and even dance music for a couple hours. The stage dance floor filled up quickly after getting primed with a massive game of flip cup.

The cost for the rafting was around $150 and well worth it! I highly recommend the adventure and am planning to go next year. You can pay an extra $30 for a 20 minute video recording of your adventure too. Here’s a sample:

I’m contemplating learning the kayak maybe work my up to one of this custom kayaks which does look like the ultimate experience. Or maybe I’ll stick to the 6 person rafts for a few years.

As someone keen on experience design, what could a trip like this teach me?

Well, we could have more moments of terror and provide guides that push with one hand and protect with the other.

Around the camp fire, we hardly mentioned the paddling – we even complained a bit about it – but we babbled on about the flipping and how we nearly died which was far from the truth! It was that element of danger that excited us. We realized that our guide probably put us in a better position to flip and we thank him [ much appreciated John! ;-D] for getting us into and safely out of the drink.

He always mixed up things like rocks edged with quartz that could tear boats and slice through flesh with the best ways to avoid them and stressed that you probably never see one. And, although we never did see these razor sharp rocks, the mere thought of them being potentially a few feet below helped keep our feet up even though in reality they may have been far too deep to bother us. No one stood up in the moving water.