March 20th, 2015
What is hydrospeeding you may ask? Well I had no clue either. Obviously from the word it means “water –
fast”. Sounds good. Think of river rafting, but substitute the
raft for a meter long boogie board with four handles on it, two on either side
near the front and two more about 2/3’s the way down. You don a life jacket, helmet, little
flippers and chuck yourself into the rapids.
Sounds easy right?!? When I first
heard of it I didn’t think it would be too exciting as I’ve gone snorkelling
down the Campbell River back home on Vancouver Island and we have our face
right in the water as we tackle the white water with 35 kilo sex crazed salmon
coming at you…what’s this business about riding on a small surfboard? Well I was pleasantly surprised.
My decision to attempt this new and developing sport was a
very last minute choice. In the lobby of
my hostel, the Macondo, a Canadian woman Kristina and her Swiss friend Michael
had signed up and were about to head out.
I hadn’t planned anything for my first full day in San Gil and on a whim
thought “Sure, let’s try it.” So I had
10 minutes to get ready and off we went.
Some other people from our hostel jumped in the mini-van of the Colombia
River Raft Company, however the others were rafting, except one other guy, a
German named Jannick who was also throwing the dice and going hydrospeeding.
Arriving at the river entry point the gear was unloaded and
right away we noticed that there were three boards that looked the same and
one, smaller, red and differently shaped “hydrospeed” board. Initially I thought it was for Kristina as
she was the shortest of the four of us but one of the guides stated that the
little board was, well, let’s say “more exciting” than the bigger boards. So immediately myself and the other two guys
starting jockeying for possession of the “little red devil”. We played a version of rock, papers, scissors
to determine the winner and it was Michael, although we agreed that we’d try to
each take a turn as we went down the river, provided that was possible.
Suited up and ready to go...
Our guide, who liked to be called “Red Bull”, gave us a
safety briefing and I have to admit that it raised more questions than it
answered. His English wasn’t great and
at times he broke into Spanish and rambled on about to do in certain seemingly
dire situations but it definitely wasn’t clear to me. Poor Kristina looked more and more panicked
with each passing minute. She started to
say “I don’t know if I can do this” repeatedly.
Red Bull's instructional safety video:
To start off Red Bull instructed us to paddle up the side of
the river about 10 meters to a small pool of relatively calm water to practice
flipping over with the board and then back again. Well just getting to this little eddy area
was challenging enough as the current was pretty strong. I tried a few flips and it seemed easy to get
righted but it could be a different matter in big rapids. It’s time to set off for the real deal.
Jannick was off first with Michael and I close behind. Kristina had gathered up enough courage to
give it a try with Red Bull guiding her which meant that she was holding on to
his kayak with one hand with only one on her board. The first section we hit passed under a
bridge and the rapids were looking pretty gnarly. Well what to do but “Go with the flow”.
Action sequence...I'm the one in the background, on the black and green board:
I blew this one up so you might be able to see my smiling face.
Another action sequence...this is Kristina being pulled along by Red Bull:
Okay, she's starting to look a little distressed...
Really distressed:
For good reason...hitting a big standing wave...
Poppin' out:
Where is she?
I managed to stay on my board but as I passed under the
bridge I heard a woman from up above yelling “Stay left, stay left!” Then I saw a massive column of white water
which I presumed was caused by some kind of obstacle. I flared my board on its side to use it as a
shield as I approached what turned out to be a massive branch sticking out of
the river. Thankfully I was pushed off
to the side of it and into the calm water down river. Wow!
What a blast that was. I checked
in with the guys and they were loving it too but Kristina and Red Bull had
pulled over to the side of the river and were out of view from us. The raft came through the first set of rapids
and then pulled over to where the other two were and Kristina jumped in the
boat since she had banged up her leg already.
Sadly I think had she not been holding on to the kayak she would have
fared better, at least she had given it a try.
Michael and me passing under the bridge:
Into a calm section...for a while...
There were four or five more major rapids and about the same
number of minor ones over the next 11 kilometres that we floated down the
river. A couple of times I either got
rolled onto my side or even flipped completely backwards onto my back (that was
from entering into a big hole with the rapid curling back on itself…a bit scary
when you’re only on a flutter board!).
Do you like my "horned" hairdo"?
Hydrospeeding gets a solid thumbs up!
Rain began to fall as we approached the end of our run and I
have to admit, I was ready to get out.
Not from lack of excitement but it was starting to get a bit chilly
after being in the river water for close to 2 hours. We pulled over to the side of the river and
carried our gear up to the company’s storage garage. Everyone was sporting smiles on their faces,
both river rafters and hydrospeeders…although secretly I thought that the
latter group definitely had a better time!
No comments:
Post a Comment