When you hit the hole...

So, when I'm not teaching about the value of the Christian Worldview to teenagers, I get a chance to guide students down the Animas River here in Durango. I've accumulated over 2300 river hours over the last 18 years, so as you can imagine, this is one of my passions.

I like it because when you get 6 kids in a raft and there's no where to go but float, it's amazing what kind of conversations you get into. We talk about everything from the Creation around us, to what they like to do back home, to what they think about camp, ITS AWESOME!

This day we were gliding down the River and we snuck right up on the infamous rapid called Smelter. The locals named it Smelter for a reason. You know what smelting is right? It's the process where metal ore is extracted from it's natural state, and it's a pretty violent process. Thus the rapid...SMELTER. (I think you get the point.)

If you walk down to Santa Rita park between 2-4 in the afternoon, you can usually witness several rafting companies trying to navigate this hydraulic turmoil, and if you're lucky; you'll be privy to one of the greatest spectator sports around these parts. If a rafting guide doesn't know quite how to enter Smelter, the raft will tip over and you'll see what we like to refer to as a 'yard sale.'

A yard sale on the river is when everything in the raft starts floating helplessly down the river, as the guide tries to save the raft, gather the paddles, and oh yea; make sure everyone is safe. HA! It's quite a spectacle.

This particular day, I had the raft positioned just right.
I gave the order for everyone in the boat to start paddling.

We cruised right through the rapid and the kids started cheering.
It was awesome!
But we forgot something important...
Right after the Smelter Rapid comes another important River Feature. The locals call it 'Corner Pocket.'

Corner Pocket is one of those hydros that form in a river when the water re-forms and re-shapes. Usually its a wave, but at times it changes to become a river hole. A river hole is a feature along a rapid that sucks the boat in and keeps it in the river until you can position or paddle your way through.

So while we were cheering, the boat entered Corner Pocket, and well...This is what it looked like.

Well, we pretty much ended up engulfed in the water like you see here, and the kids just stopped. Nobody said anything for a moment, and they looked at me like "What do we do now?"

I put the guide paddle in the water, and we maneuvered out and got on with our trip, but the memory of Corner Pocket was the subject of our talking points at the end of the day.

"What did you guys feel like when we got sucked in the hole?" I asked.
"We felt helpless. We didn't know what to do." one of the kids responded.
"It was kind of scary." another retorted.

Isn't that just like life?

We get to a point of celebration because we got a good grade on a test, we scored some points in the game, or we found out our friends are really with us, and then life smacks you with something else. If you're not ready, if you're not watching out, sometimes life can suck you in and before you know it; you're wondering how you got there.

Everything we do here has a life lesson, and I believe the teenagers that experience these kinds of high adventure sports walk away with a more grounded approach to how to deal with life. They see the value of working together, facing challenges, and in the end they get a real feel of accomplishment. It's pretty awesome!!

I can't wait to get back on the river and get to know some more kids.

We're having a BLAST here at KIVU.

Wish you could join us.