# Thoughts on this video from rafters.



## Kendi (May 15, 2009)

Umm- first of all I wouldn't describe it as horrific. They hit something sideways and flipped. No pin, slow and shallow water. They guy stood up to pick the kid back up and put him in the raft. It didn't look like the oar had broken before they hit the piller- he just underestimated it. Kid was scared, but ok.

Couldn't hear all the banter at the end, but I did hear the guide "kidding" him about the raft setup. I think he asked if the kid was ok first?


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

Thankfully they were wearing life jackets. They were lucky their cheap raft didn't wrap on the bridge pylon.


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## BarryDingle (Mar 13, 2008)

Love the guides response..."you call that an oar?"

Obvious Greendick in a Kmart special.Guess you get what you pay for. There's a time and a place for all beginners. This probably wasn't one of those places. Probably thought he would just "bump the bridge a little." He had a car seat but probably has never even heard of a throwrope. Hopefully it was his wake up call,cause it could've been a lot worse.


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## Flying_Spaghetti_Monster (Jun 3, 2010)

When the guy said "my oar broke" the guide said 'You call that an oar"


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## BarryDingle (Mar 13, 2008)

The blade falls off the shaft(or breaks off) at the 5sec mark


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## yesimapirate (Oct 18, 2010)

Just a guess, but his helmet came probably cost more than the boat.


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## Flying_Spaghetti_Monster (Jun 3, 2010)

Man this guy is an idiot. You should check out his other videos. Here is one of them kayaking with out helmets. KAYAKING CARNAGE ON THE PROVO RIVER - caught on gopro camera - kayak - YouTube
His Youtube name is "Areyouprepped" Well sir ask yourself that question.


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## BarryDingle (Mar 13, 2008)

Ouch. I'm positive HE has his helmet on though....how else is he gonna get all that killer NoPro footage.


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## Blade&Shaft (May 23, 2009)

Both those videos sucked. Especially the first one. What an idiot. Way to scare your kid out of boating but by no means a "horrific rafting accident"... perhaps an "avoidable tubing incident..."


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

He wanted to 'spend family time'. There's a good chance those children will never want to go boating after being traumatized by their good intentioned, but clueless pops. Good thing the baby wasn't strapped into the car seat and the seat strapped to the pos toy boat.

At least he had their water skiing vests on.


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## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

The spouse didn't seem as casual about the flip as the male speaker.
Junior did voice some criticism during the event.

======

This was before we had kids but when I tried to kill myself and my lovely intelligent hard working wife with a cheap raft set up I received a frank AAR later.

I expect the same occurred here.


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## glenn (May 13, 2009)

What's an AAR?


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## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

glenn said:


> What's an AAR?


After Action Review.
Immediately after an operation in the field an all parties speaking openly do a self critique.

Military, government agencies, professional services and spouses utilize this system.


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## Utah Whitewater Gear (Mar 30, 2013)

That trestle Bridge has munched many watercraft in its days.


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## festivus (Apr 22, 2006)

Can not say I condone bringing a young child on such a pleasure float, but come on...horrific? Overall it looked like a fine inner tubing section.


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## 2kanzam (Aug 1, 2012)

Funny in a way, don't think he had a clue that bridge piling was gonna flip him like that! I don't know what the rest of that river is like but it seems to me that the kid prolly shouldn't have been there ....AND that he's fixing to get a tongue lashing on the way home.

Guess we all gotta start somewhere and stuff like this is what teaches us.

My first time soloing whitewater-I got my ducky pinned on a riduclous strainer and had a walk out...didn't even make it that far.

The very first time I rowed an oar rig I lost an oar the second I entered the very first rapid on the New River. I still had the sense/ability to be able to steer with one oar and get to shore though. (didn't lose per se, but the tower "collapsed"-it was a borrowed frame). The same thing happened two rapids later until we finally got it torqued down enough. It was a steep learning curve!


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

I think the worst thing is that he took his wife and kid along during the steep spot in his learning curve.

Everybody learns and everybody makes dumb mistakes, but he should be out with a few other people who can look out for each other and learn how to read water and maneuver a boat. In that time, he would have learned that river surface flow pushes to the outside corner, that Walmart rafts suck, that Walmart oars suck, that bridge pilings should be given respectful distance, and that GoPros are better left home during the shitshow learning process.

_Then_ he should go out on a sunny day later in the season with his wife and kiddo and show them a good time.


He's guilty of stacking too many unknowns in a little Walmart raft...and then attempting to cash in on the "glory".

Bootie beer time, there, Areyoupreppedtoswim!


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

Flying_Spaghetti_Monster said:


> Man this guy is an idiot. You should check out his other videos. Here is one of them kayaking with out helmets.
> His Youtube name is "Areyouprepped" Well sir ask yourself that question.


He's not real bright. Not real helpful to his swimmer buddies, either.


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

I'm betting his wife never gets in another raft of any kind.
From the looks of that paddle in the other video he's not one to ever spring for quality gear.


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

Any Op Ivy fans out there? Threads like these remind me of the song Caution, "Don't step in the water before you know you can swim." So many people are so concerned about safety anymore I feel like they're missing out on life a little bit. To see it on a whitewater boating forum, which is inherently riskier than most recreational hobbies, always puzzles me. I've done tons of things in life that may have been a bit risky and sometimes were downright stupid, but I wouldn't want to have missed out on them for the world, during my childhood especially. I see how protective my sisters are toward their kids and I feel a little badly for the kids honestly. We got to tear around the neighborhood as children, doing all sorts of things that would be frowned upon now if parents let their children do them, but those are some of my best memories of growing up. 

It didn't look like they were doing anything dangerous in either video to me. I'm glad to see them getting out and having fun. Do people really think the kid will even remember it, let alone be permanently traumatized by it? I fell out of a tree twice as a kid, once hard enough to knock me unconscious, but that didn't keep me from climbing trees. I doubt kids these days are any more delicate than I was, but parents sure seem to think they are.


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

LSB said:


> I'm betting his wife never gets in another raft of any kind.


He thinks its funny....but it's his loss. Sad. 

I get that he was hoping for quality family time, but he's going to get less of it..at least on the river, anyway.


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

jaffy said:


> I see how protective my sisters are toward their kids and I feel a little badly for the kids honestly. We got to tear around the neighborhood as children, doing all sorts of things that would be frowned upon now if parents let their children do them, but those are some of my best memories of growing up.


Right but there's a difference between doing dangerous stuff when youre out chonkering around on your own and when you could be putting others at risk.
I used to say "If I'm not a little bit scared I'm not really having fun" but now... not so much, especially if my kids are along.
If I learned only one thing from the Silverton Avalanche School it was just how unsafe I had always been.


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

Exactly. I'm far from a helicopter parent, but I go to great lengths to shield my daughters from the big hurts of the world.

At the same time, I stay the heck out of the way and let them explore the little hurts and injuries of childhood. I will step back more and more as they get older and can make their own decisions to either avoid the risk or suffer the consequences.


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## iSki (Oct 11, 2005)

It is a only a matter of time before natural selection wins with this guy. I bet he'll be shooting the video to prove it.


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

So you guys think the kid was in some kind of danger other than being uncomfortable? Moreso than being hauled around town in a bike trailer, or any other number of daily activities?


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

More intensely uncomfortable than riding around town in a bike trailer? Very much.

She was a victim of someone else's poor choices, not her own. What can she learn from this? Not to trust her father?



Didn't look like she was in a wetsuit.
OK. I take that back. Just checked the video posting date and it was Aug 2012. The sky was overcast, so I assumed cold spring weather. The water was probably reasonably warm.


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## flipper42 (Apr 8, 2011)

Had the same boat and ore setup for the most part bent both of them on are 3rd run threw some class 2's was lame you get what you pay for glad i didnt have my kids with me


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## jaffy (Feb 4, 2004)

I worded that poorly. What I should have said was, "Do you guys think the kid was in some kind of actual danger, rather than merely being uncomfortable?" I don't see the discomfort level as being any worse than if they were out hiking and got caught in a sudden downpour. The bike trailer comparison is because I'd be more worried about getting hit by a car while biking around town than getting hurt taking an unexpected swim on a shallow slow moving river.

From the comments about protecting kids from the big hurts of the world, about putting yourself at risk is fine but not if it also endangers others, that the guy will be a victim of natural selection I'm getting the impression people are seeing that what he's doing is putting someone at risk of serious injury or death, and I'm just not getting that. What's the actual danger here? A bruise? A scrape?

Since some people tend to take offense easily on the internet, I'll say in advance I'm not trying to be dismissive or insulting. I'm not a parent, so maybe my perspective would change if I were.


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

jaffy said:


> What's the actual danger here? A bruise? A scrape?


Foot entrapment, concussion, submerged strainers piled against the bridge.
Sure the actual risk factor may be low in this instance but what about next time. From the looks of that run I wouldn't think twice about doing it with my kids but this guy obviously has questionable judgement.
The guide at the end was saying something about walking customers around that bridge wasn't he?


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

jaffy said:


> From the comments about protecting kids from the big hurts of the world, about putting yourself at risk is fine but not if it also endangers others, that the guy will be a victim of natural selection I'm getting the impression people are seeing that what he's doing is putting someone at risk of serious injury or death, and I'm just not getting that. What's the actual danger here? A bruise? A scrape?
> 
> Since some people tend to take offense easily on the internet, I'll say in advance I'm not trying to be dismissive or insulting. I'm not a parent, so maybe my perspective would change if I were.


Flush drowning. Nothing about that abutment looked "keeper-ish" but there still could have been enough of an eddy to take the kiddo down low enough for her to aspirate water.

No offense taken here--I love a great debate.


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## Toshkya (Nov 26, 2012)

Ok, this stretch of the Provo is a booze cruise. Bear bridge is the only obstacle to look out for. You can't fault the man for being in a Walmart raft, pretty much everyone else is. He was just unlucky to break his oar at that point. But he probably should have had the cents, to walk around with a small kid and lack of experience anyways.

On the weekends there is 50 to 100 people partying on a island a mile upstream. Makes for quite alot of carnage at the bridge when the twenty tube, tied together floatilla comes around that corner.


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## glenn (May 13, 2009)

Sure looks like ignorance rather than stupidity to me. I wouldn't be surprised if he's floated the thing in inner tubes dozens of times prior to bringing his family on the float "where nothing happens".

I was exposed to far worse situations by far more protective parents than these, and I wasn't breaking any rules. Shit happens in life. If he was back out the following week without learning anything from it I would probably feel differently.


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## hammateur1 (Dec 10, 2010)

after he lost that "oar" he should've become mobile in the boat to push off that piling...pretty simple common sense, don't have to be an experienced boater to figure that out


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## Schutzie (Feb 5, 2013)

Natural selection as a rule will fix stupid eventually.


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## BilloutWest (Jan 25, 2013)

If you take your kids rent some better equipment.

An extra oar is nice.

Maybe most important is make sure your kids have a life preserver with a crotch strap or two. Something to keep the PFD on for sure.

Helmets for kids isn't a stretch either.
Just the bike helmet would be great.


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