Ben White's Big Water Beatdown Thursday Experience

Hey everyone, this is Ben back for week two, here to bring you tidings of the latest Big Water Beatdown Thursday with the OKS Keeners. The day started out with a warm up consisting of a P90X core and ab workout, quickly followed by a hearty breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and four glasses of chocolate milk. We spent the morning swimming McCoy's Chute and Phil's Hole, learning essential skills required for our Swiftwater Rescue certification. After lunch on the main channel, the real beatdowns commenced. After playing in the whirlpools at Butcher's Knife and Brain Douche, the group paddled down to the top of Coliseum, the final, massive rapid on the main channel. After a quick but insightful scout of the rapid, we ferried to the river right eddy above the rapid, got out of our boats and non-essential gear, and began to swim Coliseum. The line was quite simple; Swim hard to the river left tongue at the start of the rapid, and then once on the tongue, continue the long and grueling swim to the bottom river right eddy at the end of the rapid. Soon after diving into the current above Coliseum, I quickly realized that I was going to miss the line completely. I didn't make it quite far enough to river left and missed the tongue, and ended up going down the worst line possible; Directly into the gaping maw of White Faced Monster. White Faced Monster is a shallow tongue leading into a massive, sticky hole, hence the name "White Faced Monster". After banging up my ankles pretty badly, I got about 7 seconds of down time in White Faced Monster, and missed the eddy at the bottom of the rapid. After a shallow swim down Dog's Leg, I was feeling pretty haggard, and grabbed onto the back of Tyler Curtis' kayak as he dragged me to shore. The swim was definitely one of the most frightening experiences of my life, but it definitely taught me to swim a lot harder the next time I find myself in that situation. In reflection, I think it's time to sign up for some swimming lessons.