TALKING STOCK
RICARDO SMITH: When you are under water, keep calm and hold on to your life jacket
There are lessons from river rafting about how to behave amid turmoil and panic
Went river rafting in the Vaal a couple of years ago. Sore bodies aside, there was certainly a lot of learning. At the start, you declare your swimming skills and are given safety tips — among them is holding onto your life jacket when you fall into the water, as waving your arms allows your life jacket to shoot out of your body.
As we started, there was tranquillity and calm, floating along the river in our rafts with clean, fresh air and birds chirping as we went along. The problem started when we hit turbulent waters and got to the more advanced elements of the exercise. A lot of us participated despite earlier declarations on the various swimming skills. Of course there was a lot of struggle, with some swimming straight into rocky waterfall areas, which sucked us into the river while we were hammered by the rocks...
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