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Saturday I witnessed the most idiotic thing I have ever seen on the river. Been paddling ww for about 12 years now and have seen many stupid things but this one takes the cake. A certain rafting company who shouldn’t remain nameless was running a trip on a pretty undercut river on the Plateau came across a totally avoidable undercut but managed somehow to get the whole boat sideways against it spilling customers under it. We could only get verbal commitment from those upstream, not on the scene, that everyone was accounted for. Then the guides were throwing ropes at it like an empty throw bag was going to rip that sucker right out of the grip of the rock and current. I was still trying to asses the scene with other well versed boaters and suddenly this guy in a kayak comes down stream and tells the guides to hook a carabiner on the end and give it to him so he could wrap it around his shoulder and paddle up in front of the raft in front of an undercut and hook it to the rope. After the 3rd attempt and at almost getting flipped under both he managed to get it hooked. Turns out everyone was safe but pretty shaken up and the raft was only in danger.
This guy in the kayak has to be the stupidest paddler I have ever seen trying to be the hero for an empty raft. Next time I lose a piece of gear in front of an undercut I hope this tool is there to get it out for me cause nobody else sure as hell aren’t going to risk their life for a piece of gear.
There was only one guide (the trip leader) who was trained in swiftwater rescue. The company(SRT) trainer was there and watched from the bank like a bystander while others were trying to help the trip leader asses the options.
Basically now I would go out of my way to recommend that someone take a trip with anyone but this irresponsible, unprepared outfitter. I cant get over the fact that they allowed a private stupid as shit kayaker try to retrieve a piece of gear from an undercut. If something had happened it would have been their ass.
I tried to tell the kayaker how ignorant he was but he rode off into the sunset like the hero as soon as he had the boat clear. If you are that guy or from that company (you know if its you) you should asses this situation and not try to kill people in the future like you did Saturday.
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the dumbest thing I have ever seen on a river was Saturday New 
BoaterTalk 
