Some people

Seriously, can be soooo stupid. Not just annoying stupid, but criminally negligent stupid.

I went rafting this weekend with Nick, Jen and Alex. We had an awesome trip. Everyone were great on the paddling, and every run of rapids was smooth as silk. We hit all the good stuff right on. It's been a while since I've done that, so I'm super happy. Nice to have that prayer answered!

But now for the stupid people. It started at U of C. Actually, I won't say stupid for them, just not trained properly and inexperienced, which is understandable, although inconvenient. We picked up the gear, and I had to tell them what was what. They tried to give us non-whitewater PFDs, the guide paddle wasn't a guide paddle, stuff like that. So after getting all that sorted, we hit the road. Get to the river, wrong boat. It was a non-whitewater, non-bailing raft. Good for like the bow and stuff, not so good for the Red Deer. After some deliberating I scored us a bailing bucket and we decided to hit it anyway. The material on the boat was tough enough, it just meant we really needed to be on the ball. If it were people who didn't know better, they'd have been in trouble though.

Anyway, second big rapid, we watch a fishing type raft with 2 adults and about 4 or 5 kids, and a dog, with shorty wetsuits and bike helmets go over sideways. (were were hanging out below it debating surfing the big ledge) After Jen pulls a screaming kid out of the water, and me and alex get to a couple people as their coming on shore, and get a head count, we keep going (they were getting out there, so that was good). Later on, next big rapid, another boat, this one a 4 person whitewater with about 7 or 8 people in it got eaten by a hole in S-Bend. Again, screaming people everywhere. I tagged 3 with a rope just as a kayaker got to them and towed them to shore, and nick got one who was on her own (never though I'd need both throw bags at the same time!). These ones had NO lifejackets and NO wetsuits. I could not believe it. It seriously blew my mind. To endanger a bunch of young people by being that stupidly negligent. They are seriously lucky no one drown or got severe hypothermia.

So the moral of the story, if you're gonna hit the river with someone, make sure you know they aren't gonna kill you! I mean, no life jackets in whitewater? Holy crap!