We are the thrill providers. If you enjoy the rush of fear from a horror movie! If you enjoy the thrill of mountain biking or running… that rush of exhilaration, whitewater rafting is another way to get it. If you enjoy mountain climbing it has a rush of adrenaline. If you enjoy skiing your getting adrenaline rushes. With Colorado River rafting you are getting those rushes every second as the water changes your movement and your mind adjusts to the roller coaster ride sliding you through the water’s path.

Have you ever experienced whitewater rafting anywhere? If you have experienced Colorado River Rafting or whitewater rafting anywhere in the world we are looking for your stories to publish in blogs. We want the raw experience that can only be told by you from you and your group. How long you were in the water. Where you were. Who you were outfitting with. What was the memory of thrill after thrill.

I can remember my first time experiencing the ride that seems like yesterday as we were a raft of 4 thrown down the whitewater blasting against rocks, over rocks, past rocks… through waterfalls. At points it was like looking over the top of nothing like on a roller coaster looking out as you are on top of the climb before you can see the track and all you can see is open sky and you know you are about to drop. That feeling of adrenaline in your mind flowing into your head, throat, chest, and stomach reacting with your whole body of controlled bottled fear about to explode into an experience of exhilaration. You start going down the drop and you finally see a track of water and your gushing down shot fast as you free-fall with the water running into a flat plane of water dropping fifty feet … what a rush and experience! Reply your experience to this article about your memories of exhilaration in Colorado River rafting or any whitewater trip around the world you have experienced. You may win a trip for your entry of your memorable ride!

Some of the best rafts in the world are constructed of Ferrari’s patented Preconstraint PVC fabric and urethane AIREcells, they set the standard for durability, performance and innovation.  Aire is one of the companies who carry’s one of the best. Types of rafts are: * Self Bailers * Catarafts * Paddle Rafts * ‘R2’? * Kayaks * J-Rigs and Sweep Boats * Dories

Let’s start with the Self Bailer and we will explain the rest in other articles. So how can a whitewater raft bail water out of itself? Well, an ingeniously simple design makes it happen. You see, the floor of a self bailing raft is a wide flat inflated chamber, sort of like a big air-mattress. The edges of the floor are stitched or laced to the rest of the raft. When inflated, the floor is about 4 or 5 inches thick, so the top surface of the floor floats above the surface of the water. When water splashes into the boat, it flows across the floor, down over the edge, and out through the lacing. This design works amazingly well. A self bailer filled to the brim with water will proceed to empty itself in just a few seconds on a Colorado River Rafting trip.

If you’ve ever bailed water out of a raft, you know how sweet it is to have a self bailer. In fact, if you float with someone who has an older non-self-bailing raft (known as a ‘bucket boat’ for the obvious trait – it retains water), you get to stop and wait for them to bail at the bottom of each major rapid. So, nowadays, when someone says ‘raft’, they are usually talking about a self bailer. If they say they’ve got a ‘bucket boat’, well, too bad for them.

Self bailers are the work horses on a raft trip in Kern River Rafting because they can carry a lot of gear and passengers. Popular sizes are from 13 – 18 feet long, with 14 feet probably a minimum for carrying the gear and two adults on a multi-day raft trip. 15-16 feet is ideal, and 18 footers are nice to have on larger rivers. From a performance standpoint, rowing a self bailer is more like driving a bus. So the longer the raft, the slower it is to maneuver. And the performance of any raft is diminished if it’s overloaded, pressing it deeper into the water.