White Water Rafting

Author's Note: This piece that I am writing about actually happened in a time of my life. In this past Summer I went white water rafting with my family. There were a lot of different twists and turns in this adventure that I had before. Also In this piece, I wanted to would on my word choice. Since I had a blast white water rafting, I wanted other people to see the adventure as I saw it. I want them to create a clear picture in there minds of this trip I had. 

As I was packed in the big van with my cousins, we sat there anxiously waiting to get to the river. We were driving along the side of the river. We couldn't help ourselves so we starred into the dark blue water that was sparkling in the sunlight. We were already talking about who was with who in the boats as we pulled up to the parking lot. As we pulled up, we saw people with our vests, boats, wetsuits, and helmets. We all put on our gear, got in the vans and drove off into the docking station.

All of us were screaming with excitement as we helped untie the boats. Yes, of course we had to sit through a long safety seminar so we knew how to react if the boat flipped over, or if we flew out of the boat. Once everything was completed, we started to push our big blue boats into the water.

We stepped into the boat, feeling the ice cold water on our feet and hands as we paddled our way down the river. Right when we got the boat into place, there was a rapid right in front of us. There were big white waves crashing toward us as we were paddling threw. Thankfully, no one fell out of the boat, but we were  tossed around a little bit. All of my family members in my boat thought it was a big rapid, but according to the guide, it was just the beginning.  

We went threw other rapids, big and small. The waves crashing in our faces as we paddled our way through. Although, paddling threw rapids wasn't all that was exciting. As we reading what they called a swimming spot, there was a big rock ahead of us. It was tall with a ledge on top. And of course it was for jumping. My cousin Parker, being a daredevil and all, jumped straight off the rock acting like it was no big deal. Next was McKenna, then Parker again, then my dad, and then me. I hesitated the first time I climbed up, but I had to do it just for the fun of it. I was standing on top of the rock, looking at the bright blue, sparkling water as I felt myself drop. I crashed right on top of the water and floated down until my life jacket popped me back up. The cold water was a shock right through my body and I hit the dirty water. Even though the time was scary, it was still fun jumping of a twelve foot rock, into 100 feet water.

As we hitched ourselves back onto the boats, we heard our guide say that this was one of the biggest and most dangerous rapids to go on. All of us were pretty nervous, including me. As we started our way threw, I was thinking that this was no big deal, water but all of a sudden, there were two huge rocks towering over the water. Waves were crashing around us and water sprayed in our faces, I was pretty worried, but watching the other groups go in, it looked like fun. We started to paddle and all of a sudden, we got air. Our boat flew throuh the rocks and onto the smooth part of the river. Everyone was laughing and smiling and knew why it was called the Toilet Bowl.

We kept on going through more and more rapids until we went down one specific rapid. As we went down the river, everyone stopped at this one section. It was surfing time. Surfing on a white water raft was difficult, but fun. Everyone was squeeze up front, where the guide would go in the back. We would paddle and then the guide would stand up and we would be straight up in the water! As we went, everyone screamed as loud as they could. We did that a few times until the third and final time.Everyone in my boat sat up front in the small triangle part. As we started to paddle up the deep, rocky river the boat stood straight up and all of a sudden, we flipped.

As the boat tipped over, everyone screamed. My cousin Parker. my cousin McKenna, and I  all were under the tube as they lifted it up. We all swam down the rest of the rapid until we came near the other tube for my family. All twelve of us were in the boat that held seven! It was a scary time, but it was an amazing adventure.

There were more and more fun rapids to go down after that, but surfing was by far the best. I was glad to go white waster rafting the first time with some of my family members that I only see once a year. I hope to go white water rafting again on a much more dangerous river. Maybe in a different state even! All I know is that I had a blast doing it and hope to white water raft again soon.