I love rafting!

Rafting Is For Kids!
By Hugo Fetch

I love rafting! The words hardly left my mouth when Christian shouted back, "Rafting is for kids!". Of course I got an argument, what could I expect, Christian is a lawyer. I guess what surprised me is level of his distain for a white water sport, because when Christine isn’t practicing law he’s on the river. Christian loves kayaking!

Knowing I was out of my league in trying to defend my passion, I decided to take advantage of one of Christian’s weaknesses. Like a lot of thrill seekers, Christian can’t resist a challenge. So I shot back, you’ve never even tried it! He started to laugh and that’s when I knew I had him. Still chuckling he said "So you want me to catch a ride with a bunch of kids and grandmothers and have a guide, that’s half my age, take me down the river". Perfect I thought, he’s right where I want him. "No" I responded, why don’t you take your vacation on a wild river in the Yukon, or South America or perhaps even Africa, instead of sitting in a hole doing spins for two weeks. Why don’t you see what rafting is like at the extreme." He stopped smiling, he new I had challenged him and he was trapped. "Sure he said, why not."

Since I was the responsible for sending Christian on this particular adventure I decided it would only be fair that I helped him find the river and the rafting company. We finally settled on the Futaleufu in Chile. A river I had always wanted to run and now would do so vicariously through Christian. While I was more than happy to bring another paddler into the fold I was more than a little jealous that I wasn’t going.

I put those feelings aside while I helped Christian pack and even drove him to the airport to say good-bye.

It had been over two weeks when I got the phone call from the local bar. I drove over and their was Christian with a table full of paddlers extolling the virtues of rafting and excitement of paddling wild rivers. I hardly got to talk to him that night since the crowd never seemed to shrink as he told story after story of canyons, waves, ledges and of course holes as big as trucks.

Azure blue waters frothing and tumbling through majestic canyons, what a picture he painted. Mission accomplished, I had a new rafting fanatic to spend my next vacation with.

As much as I hate to, I have to admit, Christian is right. Rafting is for kids but it’s also for grandmothers, teenagers and as he found out, even expert kayakers. Simply put, rafting is for everybody. This is one of things I love about it, no matter what your level you can find new challenges. So if it’s your first time or your first decent once you’ve tried it you’ll be hooked.