Wow Wata A Day On / In The Water With Devon

Well Sat. Aug.8th was another awsum day on the Red Deer River! It was my 30th trip down the river in a raft. This time I had Jer along guiding with me. As well as Jer we also had his brother Mathew and his two kids Julia and Joe. It was Quite an interesting day I will tell you! Jer and I had full boats, so we had the idea of maby taking a couple of inflatable kayak's along with too lighten them a bit. Afterall Mat was with us and he was in one so he could help educate and guide the people using them. Well what a "great" idea this turned out to be! (not) Two of the gentelmen caught on quite well and had things pretty well figgured out within the first hour or so. The other two had their (our) hands full. I think they wer actualy trying to scrape the good Otter name right off the side of their kayak! They slammed into every obstical they could find. They parked their kayak right on the top of The Drop Of Doom or Upper Ledge if you like. Let me tell you it was quite a sight! Jer threw them a rope and helped pull them off but they swam in the process. They wer'nt trying to save themselves at all so I threw them a rope and pulled both in at once. Then swam out and retrieved their kayak as it floated past. I then told them NOT to go over Diagnle Ledge, it was within sight, I pointed it out to them. ( it was about 500 yrds downstream ) What did they do but go right over it! Thankfully they did so without incident and all was well. After lunch (thnx again for lunch Dave and Byron) another couple wanted their turn on one. So the two gentelmen joined my boat. I had one hangen his six right outa my raft when we went over Sammy's ledge! I laughed my six off at that sight! I truley don't know how he hung on but it was quite a sight to see! Then the couple that took over the kayak after lunch almost pinned themselves on touch rock I guess they did well in avoiding it thankfully. On Monday the 10th of Aug we didn't have any bookings, Sam returned from his B.C.trip so we decided too have a play day. We once again did the Lower Red and once again had a blast! Mathew his kids, Sam and I all went down on inflatable kayaks. Spending a day on the river with friends wether they be old or new is always a very special day to me! We all had a great time playing and surfing some of the awsum play waves there. I managed to biff it twice at our favorite little play wave while using Sams Air kayak. That shure is an awsum little ride, the styrofoam bottom surfs a lot nicer than the inflatable ones in the Hysides. Then we reached Double Ledge. Double Ledge is an awsum "little" stretch of the river where the whole river gets funneled through about a 30' hole between solid rock. I have been through this spot about 5 or 6 times now and it is always an interesting experience! Having biffed it there once or so before. We all went and checked it out before we ran it like responsible little paddlers. We decided that Sam would go first which he did without incident. Then Mat went through with his daughter Julia they did well till that little kicker wave at the bottom and Julia tiped out right beside the kayak and Dad soon had her well in hand. Little Joe meanwhile is loosing his patience waiting over by wher we pulled over with the kayaks and I am comming up with a "great" idea! I am thinking that Mat should be the one to experience Double Ledge with his Son and maby I should swim this magnificent rapid. So I gave Mat and Joe my kayak too run it while I thought about and stewed over my "great" idea. They then had a great run down. When they eddied out I mentioned my "great" idea. Well surprise surprise they wer all for it! And now I am Commited! There is now no way out of this without loosing face! So Mat came up to run video and Sam stayed in the eddie below ready as Saftey incase something wrong happened. I asked Mat to cinch up my PFD as I went over and over in my mind the line I wanted to take through this monster. OMG it shure looks like a different wave when you are planning a way to swim it. I kept my line in mind as I walked up stream far enough to swim to it in the very fast current above the rapid. Well now when you are standing up stream and its all or nothing it is quite the rush when you jump and start swimming as hard as you can to reach your line. I made it just in time, I turned around assuming the position and started one of the most fantastic rides of my life.I was on the perfect line, I went under the first wave and was up in a second. The second wave sent me under for a couple of seconds, I came up just in time to get a big breath right before the bottom wave. Then I went down! I swam as hard as I could for the surface and didn't feel like I was going anywhere! I swam and swam and swam, then I thought maby I got turned around in all the commotion and was maby swimming for the bottom, so I openen my eyes and looked up and could see daylight above me. How far I coulden't say, it was just a bright light above me through a sea of green cold mountain water. My feet started to drag and kick the bottom. I was amazed that it was like washed gravel and very thankful it wasen't solid rocks or trees. I was at this point starting to think maby my "great" idea wasen't such a "great" idea afterall! Maby I really screwed up this time! Then I managed too get a solid foothold on the bottom and pushed as hard as I could and swimming as hard as I could I managed too reach the surface! Wow that one really spooked me! I traveled a long ways under water. I guess my eyes wer as big as saucers. I was at first totaly speechless,all I could mutter was holy sh#@ and holy f@#* as I gasped for air, then the rush hit! WOW what an experience! It was totaly different and yet just the same as I expected. If that makes any sence at all. We got it all on video which I will attatch! Check it out. I wish I could of had a camera with me to catch the ride from my perspective. But none the less it was spectacular anyway! Well this is the end of yet another Blog. Stay wet and keep it real, (keep it real wet folks!!!) :-).......... Devon
P.S. You can just barley see my head as I pop up beside Sam's kayak. It's just a blurred dot in the water but you can see it.

And Yet Another Day On / In The Water With Devon

Well it is Aug 7th and since my last blog on July 24th I have done another eight trips down the Red Deer River. I have had a chance too experience the pressure's of being trip leader twice now. Most of our trips have been on gorgious sunny HOT days.

On July 25th we ran the river with 5 rafts taking 34 ppl with us. It was a beautiful sunny day and also my first day as trip leader. We had no major misshaps and throurly enjoyed the day.


July 26th I ran saftey kayak for Braydon as he took a group of three half dayers down the river. We where joined by Mary, Paul, Sam and Spencer. When we finished the half day trip the six of us guides re-launched further down the river and enjoyed the rest of the day on the Lower Red. The Lower Red has lots of great play holes and ledges. We all ran Double Ledge and it was sooooo great too watch Paul biff it in his little digger 1 man canoe. ( like I would even have half a chance of doing as well as that man does in that thing!) And Spencer did an awsume job in his hardshell kayak. You would never have known he haden't ran fast water very much.


July 25th I got a chance to take my kids down the river again. We shared the trip with a farm family from Wetaskewin. Although I truley enjoyed taking my kids down the river and would do so again in an instant it wasen't the same as the many trips the kids and I have done in our 10' Canadian Tire special, but it was a great learning experience for the three of us. The kids learned that when they are rafting with daddy as a river guide the customers always come first. I explained this concept to them the night before and bless their little hearts they behaved quite well. And they had a blast aswell! They where rodeo riding the bow, they both jumped off Jumping Rock and they both swam @ Swimming Chanel allbeit @ the end of their Dads arms! LMAO

July 29th was another awsum day on the water! Braydon and I took 7 ppl down the river. We all enjoyed a great shore lunch. We both had great customers!

July 31 was another fun fun day! we got some awsum pictures this day. One was of me and my crew moterboating along the Nationals, Braydon got a picture of us at about an 70 degree angle with the bow up in the air. Then i got a great picture of Braydon moterboating through the Dirty Hole. He was at about 80 degrees when I got the picture then the raft caught the wind and floped right over backwards. It truley was a sight to see. Thankfuly no one was hurt and all went home with a great story to tell!

Aug. 1st we did yet another trip. I had a family from Calgary in my raft and we all had an absolute blast! ( with the exception of mabey the mother ) After lunch she developed a migrane that caused her to be phisicaly sick the rest of the afternoon. She was a good sport about it all and I don't think I ever once herd her complain.( she even managed to keep her head over the side of the raft if you know what I mean) She just kinda stayed in her own world while we made the trip. Her daughter jumped off of headwall. ( a cliff about 30 - 45 feet tall )Now there is a chick with big cahoonas! (And she was quite the hottie aswell!!)

Aug 2nd we made another trip down. And once again I had an awsom family group of ppl in my raft. I managed to dump 5 of them in Eddie Turn! Before we went in I switched some ppl around I had a 60+ gentenman in and really didn't want to dump him. So I dumped the two I was trying too dump, we played around a bit in the eddie then I switched them back too their original spots. When we excited the eddie I managed to "crack the whip" exceptionaly well and cleared off the whole right side of the raft! I tried my very best too keep Bill (the 60 + gentelman) in the boat but he went out anyway. ( though I had a good hold on his pfd the whole time ) I told him I was so sorry and I explained how hard I tried to keep him in and he replied " in a pigs ass you did " laughing the whole time. They all got even with me at the end of the trip though, as I was bailing the last of the water out, they picked up the bow and dumped me off the back. A dunking I truley deserved (and appreciated);-) It was to bad Jeffery fell at the end of our day and managed to gash his hand open requiring 4 or 5 stitches.


Aug 5th was another milestone for me. It was the first time I took a group down the river without another guide along. It was kind of a spooky thing to do, although I believe in my ability to handle the situations the river can throw at us at times, I was never the less a nervous man. Thankfully the family I got to take down this day was very outdoors savy. They all had considerable experience in survival situations. It was a cold wet dreary day in Sundre and it didn't get any better up at our launch site but we made the most of it! This was the first time I had experienced customers that didn't want to get wet, we ran everything straight on, paddeled most of the way down the river ( mostly just trying to stay warm) and we didn't stop and play anywhere. We stoped for a long leisurly lunch and had a very nice fire. We made record time down the river that day. You shuda seen the look on Dave's face when we walked into the shop at 4:00 pm.

I am totaly enjoying my summer here at Otter Rafting though I was told today my days guiding on the river this summer are getting numbered. So if any of you know of any jobs coming up that would suit me I seem to be in the market for one yet again. Could you please e-mail me @ devon2009@live.ca thanx in advance

Remember you gotta keep it wet to keep it happy

your rafting guide friend
Devon