There are lots of adventure sports around, Rafting or white water rafting is one of them. This sport is done in rough rivers called white waters. In this, a group of people on a raft will guide and paddle through the white water. This sport involves a great deal of danger to life. This sport is popular from mid 1970s. White water rafting involves many techniques, varieties of rafts, various safety gears and even grades in white water, all these things makes the sport even more interesting.
Here are some classifications of white waters…
Class I: This is considered safe for all because, it’ll have flat moving water with almost no waves.
Class II: Slightly more difficult that class I. This’ll have medium waves and rocks.
Class III: Moderate and irregular waves, fast currents with rocks around.
Class IV: Powerful currents, large waves and need extreme driving skills.
Class V: Very difficult. Powerful currents, large waves, huge drops, holes and with huge obstacles
Now coming to the raft itself, the type of raft needed depends on the class of the white water. Paddle rafts can seat up to 8 people, these are made of plastic and are inflatable. Two categories of raft are self Bailers and Catarafts. Most modern day plastic rafts are self Bailers. Catarafts are made of 2 such inflatable tubes.
Here are some techniques involved in how rafting is done…
- Punching – This method is used to paddle through the waters with enough speed.
- High siding – The method of passengers climbing to the sides while going downstream, this will help pull the rafts from the waters.
- Flip line – The passengers will pull one side of the raft towards them while standing on the other side of capsized raft. This will help the raft to re-right.
- Rock splat – loading the back of the raft with passengers will make the raft rise up on its stern.
- Nose dunks – this manoeuvring will make the raft dive straight into the downstream.
- Surfing – it’s just surfing along with the current and the waves.
Always use necessary safety gear while rafting, because this sport involves lots of life threatening risks.


















