Westwater Surprise rapid flip

[Alex]

This was just another run down Westwater, but turned out into an expensive trip.


I'm doing a safety talk with my passengers...good thing too! BTW, my hat was saved twice during this flip.

I had my camera mounted on a tripod to the stern of the boat and d-rings to capture a wide angle view of the boat and the rapids. The tripod worked perfect actually! I am going to do it again, except I am going to tether the camera to the boat, so it will drag if the tripod breaks again by hitting Razor rock in Skull (lol).

What happened was I was teaching my friend to row, I was sitting in the back while she was rowing my boat with two paddlers in the front. We were doing great, it was her first big whitewater and everything was going well, I got some sweet footage too prior to Surprise.

The first mistake we made, we came way too close to the boat in front of us and didn't give enough space for him to get through the rapid. As he was dropping in, we hit his stern with our bow and it stalled the bow and turned the boat to the left (sideways) into the left hole of Surprise. Apparently at 5k cfs it's big enough to flip.

The next error was the lack of experience of our captain, by not squaring with the hole. I can't blame her, her adrenaline was through the roof at this point and she was exhausted already by muscling all the rapids prior to it. So we ended up taking the left hole completely sideways.

Following our next mistake was the deer in the headlights. We all froze up and didn't high side at all. This was my first ever flip (in none controlled environment) and I totally locked up, we all just sat there as the boat slowly flipped. I was impressed with the Maravia how stable it was and how much time it gave us to highside, which we didn't. Live and learn.

After the flip we all came up successfully and made it to the flipped boat. Everyone got on top and looked down at Skull with panic in our eyes. One more mistake here, is lack of knowledge of how to self rescue and get on top of the flipped raft. I had to pull all my passengers in, though they cooperated perfectly. Dealing with a victim in panic mode would have been a lot harder. My friend Chris came up in NRS cat and took all my passengers into his boat. We could have eddied my boat out before Skull, but everyone was still in survival mode and didn't think straight.

Next lesson I learned is to put the flip lines on the SAME side of the boat. I had one flip line on each side acting as oar holders....live and learn again! Going to Sid's today to pick up another pair of flip lines. I could have flipped my boat before Skull and saved my camera if I knew what the hell I was doing! Practice flipping when you can in a controlled environment, it will save you a lot of time, money and lives!

The boat ran the Skull upside down perfectly, a lose paddle was sitting on top of the boat the whole time, I was impressed how boats run rapids on their own! Next time I am not touching the oars at all and letting the current do all the work (lol). I jumped into my buddies boat, commandeered it (sorry Don! I was in pursuit mode after my baby) and chased my boat down through Skull and Bowling Alley. After Bowling alley we caught up to the boat, eddied it out, swapped the flip lines and successfully flipped it back.

I was happy to see that all my equipment (minus the camera tripod) was in tact perfectly. Nothing shifted, nothing got wet and it was ready to be rowed. So the winter project didn't go to waste.

The tripod broke off completely, leaving me one leg for the memory (lol). The camera was attached to the whole tripod, so most likely it's at the bottom of the Colorado now

So we are heading up to the lake next weekend with the kids and dry suits to practice flipping boats and getting back into it. If your passengers/kids/family are afraid of any water and being outside of the boat, they shouldn't be on the river. That is the main lesson I learned. I am going to have my 7 years olds swim under the flipped raft to learn how to get out of overturned boat. Two of my passengers got stuck under the raft and had to walk with their hands to outside of it to get air. Practice, practice, practice! Steve, when is your class again?! :)

Supernova dry suits worked awesome, I was completely dry, very happy with it!

So another great trip down Westwater, everyone made out ok, a few bumps and bruises from the flip. But nothing Tequila couldn't help after. WEAR HELMETS!!!! Our girl captain got smacked by an oar, big bump.

Hopefully this write up will help others not to make the same mistakes

Alex
(now 2 lost cameras to Westwater gods)

This is the rapid and the flow that took my camera

[accadacca]

Great story. You gotta have those little hiccups every now and then to wake you up. Glad I wasn't on board...

[Alex]

Hiccups don't cost $400 :(

[accadacca]

[Sombeech]

Hiccups don't cost $400 :(

Glad you're OK.

Just remember, rafts are replaceable. Do you know what's not replaceable?











.......footage.

ok, people too.

That sucks man. The ONE time you have your camera like that and it flips. Go figure.