August 1, 2007
By Megan Quinn

FACING THE WAVES: Riverboarders get up close and personal with rapids

Among tubers and weekend kayakers who practice their moves in Clear Creek, wetsuit-clad, helmeted adventure-goers can be seen whizzing headfirst through the water on colorful, sled-like contraptions. They're riverboarders, seeking a thrill and not afraid to get a little (or a lot) wet.

Riverboarding, also known as sledging or hydrospeed, looks somewhat like boogie boarding or body boarding. It involves lying stomach-down on plastic boards with handles and navigating river rapids by using different kicking methods. complete article»

RIVERBOARDING: A new trend for whitewater junkies

Although riverboards resemble little more than oversized bodyboards, they are surprisingly capable whitewater vehicles. Boarders surf steep, breaking waves that kayakers only dream of catching and flush unharmed out of holes that would topple a raft. The best riders add to the fun with a litany of tricks, some borrowed from bodyboarding. Other tricks, like submarine wave exits—where the boarder buries the board in the trough of the wave, kicks hard to go deep to the bottom, follows the fast current, submarines along the bottom where it’s quiet and dark and pops up 30 to 40 feet after the hole (and the backwater danger)—are unique to the river. complete article»

Riverboards Increase on Rescue, Play Markets

If you're out on the river this summer and spot a sturdy piece of flotsam with a person attached, watch carefully-it might be Shane Bolling trying to steal your surf wave. Then again it might be someone coming to rescue you.

Bolling says riverboarding, more than any other sport, places you face-to-face with the living, breathing force of the river. "It gives you a chance to swim a rapid safely and enjoy it, as opposed to getting sucked under and tossed out" complete article»

TAKE ME TO THE RIVER

TAKE ME TO THE RIVER Looking for a new way to keep your cool this summer? Pick up a Riverboard and get your sweaty, grumpy self to a river, pronto. Riverboarding combines the best of kayaking, boogie boarding, and white-water rafting, to deliver an adrenaline- and water-soaked ride down your favorite stretch of river. Riders lie facedown on the chest-size boards, their flipper-clad feet kicking and churning as they dive headfirst into the rapids. complete article»

Riverboarding the Grand Canyon

"The Canyon in December. Three well-trained and eager women set out to fulfill a dream thought by some to be impossible, imprudent and ill-conceived: to riverboard 295 miles, from Glen Canyon Dam to Lake Mead, unassisted by a raft, in the cold waters of winter.complete article»