Otago Canoe and Kayak Club

Stories
Clarence Trip 2004
The Trip - Chute

The four kayaks went through first and waited for the two rafts.
Right, the  blue raft approaches the chute Below, it 's stuck on an underwater rock. The main risks here are to the people who could fall into the river, get knocked about, bruised or worse. The oars could slip in if  not well secured. People have moved to one side to try and get the water to flow under the raft and move it off the rock.  (Next they tried jumping.) Both oar attachments broke on entry to the chute. It is now a paddle raft. The novices are doing well on a steep learning curve. The gear  was well tied down before we set off. Imagine trying to do that now! The kayaks wait below incase of swimmers.
Views from the centre of the stuck raft. Pranjalli our camera woman kept recording through all of this.
The jumping didn't quite work, so Jens and Mike get into the still water on the left of the raft and send a line to Bridget for more leverage.
It worked! The blue raft is through and the red follows it. Later we find that the red raft has a tear in it, presumably from the same rock. Click here to return to day one