It was one year ago this month that I went riverboarding
on the Green River in eastern Utah, where my view of the gorge was wet and half
submerged at face level with the whitewater.
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The sport of riverboarding -- a whitewater niche that
involves running rapids on your belly with a buoyant boogie-board-like shell --
has garnered a small following in the United States. Colorado, California, West
Virginia, and Oregon, notably, have riverboarding scenes; it's a rising fringe
with whitewater aficionados elsewhere.
In Utah, dressed head to toe for the sport in fins,
booties, a wetsuit, padding, a life vest, webbed neoprene gloves, and a helmet,
I had an absolute blast busting through waves and shooting the swift slots
between boulders, ominous and half submerged on a Class III section of the
river.
This story --
http://thegearjunkie.com/riverboarding-green-river-utah -- talks about my epic three-hour-long
downriver run, while hashing through some of the esoteric gear of the sport.
Plus, there's a slideshow of some pro riverboarders in
action. Click the main image at the top of the page here:
http://thegearjunkie.com/riverboarding-green-river-utah