Whitewater Rafting; Jasson Smiles in the Face of Danger

Last week Jasson and I went whitewater rafting on the Wairoa River, which is a class 5 river. That means they're the gnarliest rapids available for human rafting.

Jasson and I first went whitewater rafting a few months ago in Oregon, which was a class 3 and 4 river. So we felt pretty confident in our rafting skills and ready to take on this challenge.

Our guide, Brett, made it clear to everyone that these rapids were serious and possibly fatal. In order to survive our trip we needed to follow his orders with military precision and urgency. In a calm area of the river we practiced rowing, ducking into the bottom of the raft, how to pull others into the raft from the water, and how to cling to a raft that has flipped over. He drilled us until started to work together as a unit with a reasonable amount of speed, then we set off.

I knew Jasson enjoyed whitewater rafting, but I didn't realize how much he enjoyed it until I saw these photos.

Here we approach one of our biggest rapids.

That's Jasson and I in the front. Let's zoom in on our expressions, shall we?

Smiling!

Still smiling!

Still smiling!

HE IS STILL SMILING!

Three people in our raft died that day.

Just kidding. After two hours of incredibly intense rapids, including me being almost thrown out of the raft...(that's me in the back this time)

...we made it safely to the end where some BBQ hamburgers were waiting for us.