Rage the Rapids Part 2: Team Kawabunga Reach for Victory

Done, but not forgotten

A few days ago, I posted about Rage the Rapids and how I was taking part. Well that event has passed, and I’d say we did really quite well.

As of writing this post, we’ve raised £1,256.00 on our Virgin Giving sponsorship page alone, with a whole bunch more raised offline (read: “badgering our friends, relatives and workmates in the real world”) that means that our total will be in the region of £1,500.

Considering that out target was £1,000 I think we’ve done really rather well.

On the night?

The event was fantastic. There was a little hiccup in getting everyone there, but once we go there it was golden.

We got signed in, taken downstairs to the wetsuits-and-changing-room area, got given a wetsuit and some footwear, then told to get changed and meet outside.

Once we got outside we met our boat-master/guide/fellow-who-sits-at-the-back-and-shouts-at-us: Eamon. He’s a great chap. Lots of laughing and joking mixed in with the seriousness of the safety briefing meant that it flew by. We got kitted out in helmets and buoyancy aids then we were in the raft, on the water.

Five minutes training later, we were throwing ourselves into the water. It’s part of the safety assessment: to see whether you can handle being in the water, on the off chance that you fall in. Plus it’s loads of fun jumping into the water, floating down stream, then going hell for leather trying to swim to shore.

After that, we were in the raft and taking part in the event.

How’d it go?

The first time round the Olympic route, we were getting to grips with handling the raft. The next time round was our timed run.

We finished 8th of 12, with a 21 second gap between us and the guys in first. Not bad for a bunch of first timers (and one or two pros).

After that, it was shits’-and-giggles o’clock. We had two more planned runs of the course: the first was just another timed run (but without the timing), and the second was seeing whether we could handle the higher settings on the rapids.

When we got back to the start again, we were told that we could have another go. This time, we spent quite a bit of time floating (and I use the term very loosely) around in each of the rapid pools. We tried to tip the raft over a few times, but it didn’t work.

When we got back to the training area, Eamon said:

Because none of you have fallen out, who fancies a swim?

Instantly, Howard and I threw Sally out of the raft. Then we all jumped into the water. It’s so serene and calm just floating around on your back, letting the buoyancy aid do all the work for you.

Then it was back inside for showering, changing and getting back together.

An excellent time was had by all. I’d highly recommend it. I’ll put a link to the place we went to right here [LINK], that way you can check it out for yourself.

What’s this about ‘Kate winslet’?

Because it’s an eight person raft, and there was nine of us in Team Kawabunga (technically 10, but one person was unable to take part), we were told that someone would have to be ‘Kate Winslet’. What this meant was someone had to sit at the front (ahead of Howard and I, as we were the first oarsmen… if that’s even the correct term), hold on tight, and do the “I’m flying Jack” bit from Titanic… The ‘Kate Winslet’

I didn’t get to have a go as ‘Kate’, but other members of the team did. That’s how Howard and I were able to throw Sally overboard at the end: she was Kate-ing… can that be a verb?

Here’s a gallery of some of the photo’s that were taken of us doing this thing (It might take a moment to load, because the images are huge)