I went out on a 7 hour trip with friends of mine and what was suppose to be a fun day turned out to be a terrifying experience for me not once, but twice. I was thrown from the raft twice, which, having done white water rafting before, I knew was one of the risks you take when doing this sort of activity.
So here I was screaming bloody murder, being scraped along over jagged rocks that were jabbing me in the spine, my limbs twisting around in the current, no matter how hard I tried to follow the instruction they give you to float on your back with your feet and head up, that doesn't exactly work when you are in the middle of the rapids and you are heading towards boulders, risking serious head injury. After telling them I'd been hit in the spine they just seemed to ignore that and didn't even put it on the accident report after I repeated myself at least 4 times. The second time I had fallen out I was sucked under my raft twice, and wedged between the raft and a huge bolder. If my group member had not puled me out when they did, my skull would have been crushed. The guide didn't even come over to our raft until AFTER I was pulled back in.
There were too many people and not enough guides, consequently, the guides we did have were not quick to respond.
The guides just acted like it was no big deal, I was clearly injured, crying and limping (the second time I had fallen out my foot was twisted between some of the rocks.) as we were walking back to the buses, and to add insult to injury, one of the guides was making light of the fact that people had fallen out of the rafts that day and proceeded to tell stories about how stupid people are when they fall out of the rafts and panic. Can you blame people for panicking? You fall out, there is nothing between your skull and that boulder coming up behind you to prevent your brains from being splayed out all over said rock and carried upstream.
BE WARNED: THIS COMPANY DOES NOT PROVIDE ITS CUSTOMERS HELMETS FOR THEIR SAFETY!!!! I understand that in PA it is not required by law to wear helmets for this particular sport. But I think it's appalling that helmets are not provided anyway, it's just common sense. If you are going to conduct rafting trips, you obviously know the risks to your customers, I don't care about waiver forms...etc....shell out some freakin money and provide your customers with freakin helmets!!! the guides were all wearing helmets, but I guess the rest of us werent important.
I'd recommend going elsewhere and making sure they do smaller groups so there is more supervision from guides and make sure they provide you with helmets.
Cons: dont provide helmets, to few guides for too large of groups
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