ANN/THE STAR – Creeping close to the churning white water and prominent rocks, you can’t help but double check that your helmet and life jacket are strapped on. Hearing the roaring river and watching massive boulders come closer might give you butterflies in your stomach.
Every second you start fighting back second thoughts, but you see other participants are children as young as five, also wearing helmets and life jackets, joining their parents on the river.
It looks scary and sounds scary, but how scary is it really with children allowed onboard?
“And after they try it the first time, they always come back to do it again,” said white water rafting expert Haslil Razif Amir Hassan with a smile.
The river is Sungai Geroh in Gopeng, Malaysia, and white water rafters begin from a hillside which is only about 150 metres above sea level.
The rafting journey is about seven kilometres downriver to the point where the river meanders placidly, and, depending on the time of the year, you either get an adrenaline-charged trip or a few thrills through the rapids with gentle stretches along a fast-flowing, crystal clear river.
“From October to January, when it rains almost every day, Sungai Geroh will be much fuller and the swells larger.
“After January, the dry weather makes the river shallow, you will see more rocks and the rapids are smaller,” Haslil Razif explained.
For first timers, he said doing it during the dry weather would be more fun.
“Almost everyone who tried it during the dry weather wants to come back during the wet weather for another trip when the river is full. Once they realise it is exciting and yet safe, they will always repeat the trips,” he said.
Haslil Razif, who has been running his white water rafting operation for 15 years, said that between 2013 and last year, his team had taken 2,889 families, and large groups from 98 government and corporate clients down the river with zero injuries and accidents.
He advised first timers to book their trips during off-peak seasons.
He said there were over 25 white water rafting operators and during the peak holiday seasons, they can hold 50 to 80 trips a day.
“There is an almost festive atmosphere up on the hillside every day during holidays because hundreds of people go up and the hillside road to the launch point can sometimes be quite congested. So when you take leave and come during working days, you will find a much quieter experience,” he said.
The other challenge with holiday seasons is the traffic congestion.
“On every holiday season, at least one group will arrive late because of the holiday jam on the highways and when they are late, they will miss their first rafting trip.
Haslil Razif explained that due to the logistics of transporting rafts and participants to the launch point uphill, every operator has a fixed number of rafting trips they can do per day.
Therefore, participants – who may be arriving from other states – need to arrive punctually to be transported upriver at the prescribed time.
It will be a 30-minute lorry ride to the launch point.
Participants cannot drive up in their own cars because of the lack of parking space uphill.
For large groups, they ride standing in the back of the lorry and since everyone will be helmeted with life jackets snugly fitted and wielding a paddle each, they might feel a little like a platoon of soldiers being deployed.
For small groups, they will likely be in the lorry with their rafts.
White water rafting became popular in the 1950s after modern technology allowed for the invention of inflatable rafts, which are unsinkable even when overturned.
Today’s rafts are made with such strong material that almost the only way to puncture them is by stabbing one with a knife; the material is impervious to anything naturally encountered while rafting.
Each raft, explained Haslil Razif, typically has at least four air chambers, meaning that it will never deflate should an air leak occur at one spot.
He uses high-tech rafts made in the United States, which costs about MYR15,000 to import now.
“These rafts come with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty. That alone tells you how well made they are,” he said, adding that there are also a variety of rafts which are made in China and Indonesia.
His rafts can hold four adults or two adults and three children.
For families with children aged three to five, they get to go on the “fun route” – a five-kilometre section of Sungai Geroh along a lower elevation that has mild white water.
Only children aged 10 and above can join in on the “adventure route”.
“For children aged six to nine, it depends on the physical sizes and the assessment of the trip leader.
“The trip leader will determine the children’s ability to take instructions and communicate with the guide, who is also the helmsman on the raft,” Haslil Razif explained.
There are a few other configurations of groups that the trip leader will consider before deciding if the group experiences the fun or adventure routes, and Haslil Razif said families can text the ages of the family members to him to get advice.
Based on the international scale of river difficulty created by the American Whitewater Association, he said the rapids of Sungai Geroh are only Class II, which is defined as “straightforward rapids with wide, clear channels which are evident without scouting”.
During the rainy season, he said the river’s white water become Class III+, defined as “rapids with moderate, irregular waves which may be difficult to avoid”.
The scale has a total of six classes, and rapids in the higher classes should only be attempted by experts.
All white water rafters are advised not to wear watches and jewellery, nor bring along phones or cameras because these items have a likelihood of falling to the river.
Adults on board are each equipped with a paddle to help move the raft occasionally, while the trained helmsman at the rear does the steering.
“But having photos of the trip is important. The guide will take the photos and a member of our team will be on standby at specific sections by the riverbank to take high-resolution photos for the rafters as they pass exciting stretches,” said Haslil Razif. – Arnold Loh
