For my birthday last year, Krysta gave me a coupon for a river rafting trip. Neither of us anticipated how busy our summer would get, and the end of the season rolled around with it still gathering dust on my desk. About a month ago, a friend mentioned that he was putting together a rafting trip, and we jumped at the opportunity.
Our host was Blue Sky Outfitters, a well-known outfit based in Seattle. They supplied boats, paddles, wetsuits, PFDs, drytops, and our guide, Chad. He was awesome.
After the safety briefing, we split into two boats and hit the river. Even though they supplied the essentials, I still needed some gear. Starting with a base layer.
A synthetic base layer can make a wetsuit more effective, especially if you don’t get wet. Mine are midweight, made by REI.
The North Face Apex Bionic jacket made another appearance. I wore it under my drytop for the pockets and warmth.
Naturally, half the reason I went rafting was to take pictures. I think my camera is “weather-resistant,” which doesn’t cover immersion in water.
Enter, the Dicapac. A waterproof camera bag of dubious origins, which claims to keep a camera safe down to about ten feet underwater. Early tests in the bathtub didn’t reveal any leaks, and it ended up working great.
I also needed somewhere to keep my miscellaneous gadgets. Dry bags are nice, but not as durable as I’d like.
A Pelican case worked great to keep a spare battery, memory card, and granola bar dry and uncrushed. I also brought along another fun toy that I borrowed from a friend - the Kodak Playsport. It’s waterproof (really), dustproof, and shockproof.
It spent most of its time strapped to Krysta’s PFD, which turned out to be a bad place for it, because I ended up with lots of footage of someone’s back. But it performed wonderfully, and survived several direct wave hits. Like this.
I brought along a few other things, but mostly left them in the car. Turns out I don’t have that much rafting gear. And it never got dark enough to use night vision goggles.
What worked:
The camera bag definitely pulled its weight. I got splashed countless times and nearly dunked once, and it held up great. Also, when the raft almost flipped over and everyone but me and the girl in front of me fell out, the guide caught himself by my camera strap.
The water was really cold, and it wasn’t exactly sunny out, so the base layer was great too.
My softshell definitely worked. It got a little damp around the edges, but remained dry inside, despite a few splashes that made it past the drytop.
What didn’t work:
While the video camera did what it was supposed to do, and held up well to water, I just didn’t have it in a good location. Next time I’d like to attach it to either my head, a paddle, or my camera, so it captures everything from a better vantage point.
The pelican case, likewise, did its job. But I never opened it. There really wasn’t time on the raft, and I never ran out of battery or memory on the camera. Everything inside stayed safe though.
The part of the camera bag that covers the lens tended to get in the way (you can see it in most of my photos). I’ll definitely tape or zip-tie that out of the way next time.
I was wearing Smartwool socks, and although I stayed warm enough, I think I would have been better off with something waterproof.
Overall, rafting = 
