Seaworthy Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting

In 1953, the 60-year-old Willis sailed a homemade balsa-wood raft over 4,000 miles across the Pacific from Peru to American Samoa, accompanied only by a cat and a foul-mouthed parrot. Novelist Pearson (Glad News of the Natural World) gives a rousing retelling of how, along the way, Willis endured a hernia and a perforated ulcer, sewed up an artery ruptured by a shark's tooth and survived on seawater after running out of fresh. He details Willis's eccentric diets, yogic breathing exercises and mystic spirituality, his half-baked, spur-of-the-moment planning, and the uncanny luck and superhuman hardiness that saw him through the rafting crises. Pearson places Willis in the context of others who have embarked upon Kon-Tiki--like epic raft excursions: Willis's was probably the most daring and quixotic of the bunch, undertaken not to advance a crackpot archeological theory (one Mormon-led expedition set out to prove that ancient Israelites had reached Hawaii from California), but simply to deny his own mortality. Pearson tells this incredible adventure tale in a breezy but gripping style, steeped in the lore of the sea and the perverse wisdom of a real-life ancient mariner. [ read full article ]

Colorado rafting industry hopes for robust season

The Sledgehammer, Widowmaker and Boateater are some of Mother Nature's top roller coasters in Colorado, and Christian Campton loves taking the ride.

As the warm weather arrives, Campton's Kodi Rafting takes tourists, oar in hand and life vests buckled, on white-knuckled rides through these twisting and sometimes bone-chilling rapids on the Arkansas and Colorado, among the state's most scenic rivers.

And reservations for Kodi's rafting trips are up this year. "I am thinking it's going to be fantastic for us," Campton says.

After a devastating year in 2002, Colorado's rafting industry is hoping for strong bookings this season. Winter storms left behind a healthy snowpack, and cool, moist weather in May and June slowed the snowmelt, which will help extend the season.

Reports from other parts of the West were also promising.

Rafters in Montana had hoped for rain and snow in early June, which is typically a wet month, and they got it. "It's been like India here--the monsoons have hit," says Denny Gignoux of the Montana Raft Co., whose company is based in West Glacier near the entrance to Glacier National Park. [ read full article ]

Mortality and morbidity in white water rafting in New Zealand

Abstract
Objectives This study provides the first descriptive overview of fatal and non-fatal injury associated with white water and other recreational river rafting in New Zealand. The current study sought to identify the nature and causes of hospitalisable injuries and to identify the causes of fatal injuries to white water rafters.
Design The data were obtained from the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) mortality and morbidity files. Mortality data for the period from 1983 to 1995 and morbidity data from 1983–1996 were used.
Participants Members of the public who took part in white water and other recreational river rafting activities through-out the above periods.
Results Of the 33 fatalities, over 80% were male. Almost all the fatalities involved drowning, more than a third resulting from the raft capsizing. Nearly half of the 215 hospitalisations resulted from fractures, victims spending an average of 3.3 days in hospital. The effects of submersion, and intracranial injuries were the next most common categories.
Conclusions and implications In relation to fatalities, the potentially modifiable risk factors involve improved resistance to raft capsizing, and equipment and skills required to stay afloat. In relation to injuries, the potentially modifiable risk factors relate mainly to preventing slipping and falling through the design of footwear, protective equipment, and procedures for entry and egress.
Keywords: Injury prevention; drowning; water recreation; injury mortality; rafting.
Introduction
White water rafting first became popular in New Zealand after the end of the Second World War. The commercial
development of white water rafting as an ‘adventure’ activity has taken place in more recent times, with 21 companies currently forming the New Zealand Rafting Association (http://www.nz-rafting.co.nz/). The most frequently rafted river in New Zealand is the Shotover River near Queenstown in the South Island with approximately 40,000 clients per annum1 [ read full article ]