go rafting

My experience was a great one. Went with 2 of my cousins, on Saturday August 23, 2008. We did the rapids twice. Didn’t fall off or flip the first time (and our guide, Phillipe, was trying to flip us too! He’s like: “We didn’t flip! Ah well, next time, we will!”).

In the next run, we only flipped in the last rapids (went sideways really), The Washing Machine (la machine à laver). Almost everybody including Philippe fell off the raft. Me and this other guy, Paolo, stayed in the raft, woohoo! Then me and this other guide pulled my cousin in the raft. Then Philippe came back to try and go up the rapid, and I had time to think: “Wow, he’s coming back? Alright!” and “Whoa, that was quick!” because I was already in the water lol! Me and Paolo fell backwards in the water.

Philippe told me, that out of the ones on our raft, I had it the worst. I got stuck in a swirl, and I was told that our lifejackets would just bring us up, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t panicking but I was like: “Geez, where’s the surface. I’m not going up”. I moved my arms even more and eventually broke free of the swirl and started to swim towards the shore (which was a bunch of slippery rocks), trying to stay afloat, which wasn’t easy with the waves and another guide, Christian, ran to me, when I was close enough to the shore, and grab my lifejacket and pulled me to safety. Thank you! I thought. Asked if I was ok and said yes. Later on, I thought, I didn’t say thank you and which guide was it? I remembered that he was a redhead.

All that time, Philippe was in the raft, and he could see me in the swirl, and was waiting for me to come up to grab me. All he could see was my yellow hat going up a bit only to go down again, a couple of times. He was like: “She’s gonna come up, she’s gonna come up”, but I wasn’t. Then he noticed me a little further down when I resurfaced (without my hat – weird – it was floating by). When he saw I wasn’t coming up, he thought “She’s gonna have a long one”. I did a bit. When it was happening, it seemed long because you don’t know how long it’s going to last. But I made it! I bought the video (my cousin has it) and when I watch it I’m going to count the seconds.

In the bus, before we left, there was a guy in front of me and I smiled and he smiled and he said: “Are you ok?” I nodded and noticed that he was a redhead and asked if he was the one that pulled me out and he said yes and I said thank you.

Whew, what a day! No more water that day! But the next day, I would have gone again.

I’ll be going back to this place. I made friends. I loved that place. It’s called New World Rafting Nouveau Monde: www.newworld.ca.

New World Center
25 chemin Rourke, C.P. 100
Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Québec, J0V 1B0
Phone: 1-800-361-5033

E-Mail: info@newworld.ca

I’m also going to try rafting in other cities, countries (and other water and non water sports).

we do a tour every year, it’s traditional.
family members, friends, kids, pets.
a long weekend in a country house.
1 day rafting trip.
we have sportsmen who row and lazybones who drift. they fight each yr what way is the best to raft :)
i have to say this yr there was only 2 boats out of 14 of sportsmen left! lazyness is winning:)

I went rafting with a group of people a couple of years ago… and it was boring. :/ I didn’t have to row at all, the rapids weren’t very rapid (the water was low and the current slow), there were no bumps or scary “going directly at the big rock, we’re gonna crash, aaaaaa!” moments. Blah.

This time, it was only two of us in a 3-person raft so there was no chance to goof off. I had to row like crazy. Also, as it was raining right up to the moment we went in, the water was very high and moving fast. So yeah, nowhere near boring this time. I was so tired afterwards that I didn’t even have enough strength to peel off my neoprene suit, I had to ask for help.

But the best part… It was raining for the whole morning but it stopped right when we took off. Then the sun started shining through the clouds every now and then, and there was mist over the water, it was like something straight out of “Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Lord of the Rings”. Soooo beautiful. Much better than that boring sunny weather. ;)

My plan for this year is Colorado. Any advice appreciated. I got into rafting two years ago. Last year I’ve spent three days on Tara. It was great. The river was boiling in May :) We were sleeping in a traditional type of cottage in the woods. Wow.

We rafted on our honeymoon! It was so rad. I can’t wait to do it again.

It took a while to get used to rowing, but once I got the hang of it…I felt like I could row for days! Sitting in the raft while someone else does the rowing is relaxing too!!!

3 day experience, 55km raft in between breathtaking canyons (with condors) including a class V rapid. Please bear in mind that a class V can claim your life. It is a wonderful experience, but be aware of the risks.