White Water Rafting FAQ

White water rafting is a team sport. This makes it even more important that you all listen to your guide so everyone gets the opportunity to listen to the safety advice and ask any questions. Once your raft hits the rapids. You will want to feel confident that you can hear every word he is saying to ensure everyone stays in the raft, not the water. Your guide will have the knowledge to tell you where to sit and how to hold the oar securely. They will also give you tips on how to watch the river to see the changes and how to propel the raft safely through the rapids.

Whenever you are doing any activities on or near to the water then you should always wear a life jacket. The rules remain the same with white water rafting. Once you hit the big rapids you will understand the need for safety to be first. Being on the rapids can feel like you are inside a washing machine. That is why as soon as you are given the life jacket. PUT IT ON.

Ensure your life jacket is comfortable and it fits you securely but still allows you to move freely when rowing the raft. Next you will be given a helmet which also needs to be put straight on and made sure to fit correctly. The last thing you want is to put all the equipment on then realist it is the wrong size and hold the whole group up changing.

Once you are all set up and ready to go you will all be given your places to sit on the raft. The guide will want to even out the weight of the people in the boat to ensure it is evenly distributed. Once everyone Is safely seated, the guide will push the boat off and start heading down the rapids. This is the time to start to relax and enjoy yourself as relaxing will stop you from tensing up and you will enjoy the experience more. When the guide tells you to start paddling, Paddle, and Enjoy.

Your guide will speak to you about all of the safety information and tips on the day. One of the best tips we can give you apart from the above, with wearing a life jacket and always listening to your guide, is to make sure that you always keep hold of your paddle with the T-Grip at the top of the paddle. This will always ensure you have it when you need to paddle and that you don’t end up dropping it into the water, plus it will help to make sure that you do not hit someone else in the raft with your paddle once you start to hit the rapids. So keep hold of the T-Grip at all times when you are in the raft.

From what we can find there is only a few world records for White Water rafting. So if you are looking to get your name in the Guinness world records then maybe have a look at the events we have listed below. But if we have missed anything, just let us know.

The Largest Rafting Race

This was achieved on the 26^th of July 2015 in Japan by Kitakamigawa. River Rubber Boat Rafting Championship in which 1,628 participants with 2 people per raft, which made a total of 814 rafts all in one place.

DHL Build a raft to hold almost 1,000 people

On the 15^th of June 2018 a team of 956 people from DHL in Germany got together to make a massive raft by working in teams of 10. They connected all of the rafts together, breaking the world record from the previous number of 512 people that was reached in 2014. Once the raft was out on the water holding all 956 people ,they all stood on the raft for 5 minutes without getting their feet wet to achieve the world record.

The largest floating raft made from plastic bottles

This world record was achieved on the 12^th of August 2018 in Japan. The raft was made by 18 local elementary schools by using 2,872 plastic bottles, the raft was then placed in the water using a crane and 1 person had to climb aboard and stay on the raft for 1 minute without getting wet.

The history of whitewater rafting can be dated right back to 1811 with the first ever attempt to raft down the Snake River with no training or experience. This rive is now known as “Mad River” so that gives you some ideas of what the river I like, and maybe not a river to try with no experience or training. Due to this the river was found to be too difficult and dangerous, plus the raft was made from four rubber cloth tubes and a wrap-around floor.

We see this all of the time with people turning up to go white water rafting for the first time and they either forget sunscreen or will bring sunscreen that is not waterproof. If not wearing the most appropriate sunscreen, you either end up with sunscreen in their eyes once they start to get wet and if you have ever had that it’s not fun. So make sure you have waterproof sunscreen with you at all times.

This is a great question, so we have put together a quick list for you below but always check with the venue as well, also don’t worry if you forget some of the below as most venues will sell things like sunscreen etc.

• Change of clothing and a towel (as you will be getting wet)
• Comfortable secure trainers, and also a change of footwear (some venues you can rent water shoes)
• Sunscreen and Sunglasses (with a strap)
• Water and a snack
• Change for a locker to leave your phone/car keys etc secure

It’s always best to know how to swim. But you don’t need to be a strong swimmer. It is always wisest and safe to have some swimming skills if you do end up in the water to help you to relax and to get yourself back to the boat. Everyone will be wearing life jackets which are designed to help you float so you don’t need to know how to swim.