Whitewater: Swimming in the New River

I'm resigned to the fact that I will probably never get my wife on a river of any consequence, so I have no qualms about posting a link to this video taken by a rafter before, during, and after her raft flipped. None of the other videos that I have ever seen of rafting "carnage" do justice to what it's really like - unless you are actually on the water, you can't really understand how big the waves are, and how deep the holes are, and what it's like to be pummelled under the water after you flip or get bounced out of the boat. This one, at least, shows a bit of what it's like to take a swim.

This video was taken by a rafter who was "riding the bull" on the New River. "Riding the bull" is when you stand up on the front of the boat, holding the tow line in one hand, and try to keep your balance as the raft goes through the rapids. Obviously, you can't do this in big water, but it's still a lot of fun. In this particular instance, the raft wasn't going through anything too big, but they hit a hole the wrong way and flipped.

Here's the link.