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Alright you fellow "crazies"! What got you started riverboarding? ;)

I posted this question in my "Women of Whitewater' group...ladies, if you haven't joined yet, please do!

We realized that we're also interested in how you men got your start and why? So please share how you heard about the sport, your whitewater experience (if you started as a rafter, kayaker, etc), goals, stories, favorite runs, anything you got and want to share!

P.S Gauleyfest is coming up soon, check out the info on our event page!

Peace and H2O,

~Alicia

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Permalink Reply by J. Young on August 24, 2009 at 2:04pm
Back in 1990 or so, I saw a two or three-second blip on TV of somebody jumping into a rapid with a boogie board. At the time, I had been canoeing a year or two, so I at least new where a couple waves could be found. I bought two cheap boogie boards, laced them together with p-cord and an awl and had at it. I only went a few times, because it was just so damned strenuous. Then, just a few years ago, I saw a couple people running the New on boogie boards. Within a week, I had one strapped to the back of a raft. I re-started by surfing a bit, then ran a couple rapids, then did the whole Lower New section... and it just built from there.

I dunno what the attraction is. I just feel so much more comfortable on a riverboard than any other craft.
Permalink Reply by Matt Kuntz on August 24, 2009 at 9:00pm
I became a snorkeling addict while stationed in Hawaii. I moved home to Montana and took this addiction to the rivers, mainly the Missouri. Eventually I moved to Oregon for law school, snorkeled the Willamette, and then moved onto the Rogue. The Rogue River gave me a pretty serious beatdown and made it clear that I was going to need more than a snorkel to take advantage of all of Oregon's rivers. Two weeks later, I saw an SUV commercial featuring riverboarding. It only took one trip down the McKenzie on a rented Carlson to get me hooked.
Permalink Reply by Rochelle Parry on August 24, 2009 at 10:47pm
That's the second mention of the SUV commercial. I wonder who was the riverboarder and where it was filmed?
Permalink Reply by The River Boarding Co. on August 26, 2009 at 9:42pm
It was filmed in Queenstown, there were, from memory, four guys in the commercial, at least one is now a member of facelevel, Mikey Swaren.
Permalink Reply by Waterboarder1 on August 25, 2009 at 5:35am
Hey Matt,
You are only the second person I ever heard of that snorkels fresh water rivers! The first was Ralph Cutter and he did it so he could research the bible of Sierra fly fishermen: "Sierra Trout Guide". Did you start snorkeling in rivers so that you could see how fish live and become a better fisherman? Or was it for the thrill ride of seeing the terrain rush by while flying like Superman, weightless above it all?
I started snorkeling Sierra rivers & lakes to improve my fishing, but it is so damn much fun, I hardly ever fish any more. Plus I now keep all my friends and acquaintances in found lures all year long!
Permalink Reply by Rob Robinson on February 14, 2011 at 10:30pm

Driving home from mountains in North Carolina we took the scenic highway 64 down past the Ocoee River where I saw a parade of rafts at the put in for the Middle. The water was lit by the sun as if it was filled with floating diamonds. I knew at that precise moment I was going to be getting in that river!

 

I used to boogie board in California and figured there had to be a way to do that in a river ... I was not interested in kayaking or rafting. That evening I began researching online, found "riverboarding" along with various equipment and, within a week,  had ordered all the gear online I needed to get started. I also found Kevin Yount on FB who (with his trusty water horse "Aquianna") soon became my mentor.

***

I rock climbed for many, many years before finally burning out on the sport. I never thought I would find anything as exciting, challenging and fulfilling as climbing was. So I am extremely lucky to have found a new wilderness experience  that I am as psyched about as riverboarding.

 

I love this "sport" (which, for me, borders at times on being on an almost quasi-religious mystical experience) because the goal is to become 'one with the river' in a way that you simply cannot do in a kayak, raft or anything else. With riverboarding, you are IN the water .... not ON it. You are not avoiding being in the water ... you are immersed in it. (Kayakers laugh about "having to take a swim.") You are becoming intimate with the river in a way that you can never experience if  you approach the river "at arm's length" -- i.e. with a paddle. Riverboarding is a way of falling in love, if you will, with the spirit of a river which you cannot do in any other way. Maybe "love" isn't quite the right word however  I do think all of you on this board in fact love the rivers ... you have a tremendous passion for the river. Maybe you would want to simply call it a passion.

 

Riverboarding strikes me as having an almost Eastern/Zen organic feel to it vs. kayaking et. al. which seems to me to be a very Westernized and technological approach to a wilderness encounter. This is not to say one is better than the other ... it's just what you like or are looking for. I like being wet.

***

This is a relatively "new" sport in the U.S., with huge potential to grow in the coming years. And I believe it will.

Permalink Reply by J. Young on February 18, 2011 at 1:36am
Oh, and I also do it to get chicks.
Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on February 18, 2011 at 2:02pm
I have a funny story from my personal first run of the Gauley.  I had just styled the meat of Insignificant and this gorgeous, girl-next-door type raft guide compliments me on my bravery for riverboarding it and for doing it with style.  Then she informs me that my helmet is on backwards (knew it felt tight).  I guess in the nervousness of my first run down the Upper G, I had put it on backwards.  So much for impressing the ladies.  haha.
Permalink Reply by Rob Robinson on February 18, 2011 at 2:12pm

@Jay & Kevin: I see this thread is ready to ... fork. LOL

 

Kevin that's an awesome story to share ... it shows you are not just a great boarder but also a grand innovator, and improvisor, when it comes to picking up hot river chicks. You just have to remember to ask them out! ;)

Permalink Reply by Kevin Yount on February 18, 2011 at 3:10pm
I could fill up a new discussion with my stories of falling flat on my face with river chicks.  Apparently pro status and a six string still don't do the trick, though that might have had more to do with writing a song called Hey, Blue Eyes for a girl with ever changing hazel eyes that thought her eyes were green.  LOL.
Permalink Reply by J. Young on February 19, 2011 at 6:49pm
Hahaha! That's awesomely unawesome. Like yelling the wrong name in bed.
Permalink Reply by Elisia on February 20, 2011 at 8:08pm

I grew up in Minnesota (aka the land of ten-thousand lakes; the Minnesota state bird also happens to be the Mosquito!)  As a little girl my family and I spent many, many summers on various lakes either swimming and rowing. 

 

I learned about river boarding while residing in western Montana (aka God's country).  I fell in love with white water rafting and eventually learned about river boarding through two river guides.  River boarding looked like wicked, wild fun, and something I would really love doing.  It was insta-LOVE the first time my board hit white water, and I've never looked back.  As I jumped out of Round-Up (a section of white water on the Blackfoot river), a passerby said, "Sh*t, you're crazy!"  I just flashed a bright smile and said, "Yeah...isn't it great?"   : )  

 

Signed,

A Fellow Crazy (of the girlie persuasion)

 

 

 

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