River Race

The Glen Nevis River Race is an annual event where a bunch of dafties jump off a bridge, climb onto lilos and make their way down two miles of river with sections of rough and calm water. The Saturday it happened this year the lads and I were working but decided to go out and do it some night after work. So on a sunny Thursday night the 'team' had dwindled to 2 swimmers (Keiran and myself) and two spectators (Julie and Dennis). So off we went and got ready at the bridge, Keiran executed a perfect backwards flip into the water and I did a very unimpressive impression of a depth charge.

Keiran leads the way into the 'rapids'

As we got further down river we decided it would be wise to scope out the section known as "The Legbreaker" . I had already decided that no matter how bad it looked I had to go for it or face being labelled soft.So we stopped and Keiran showed me the best way to go, where i should aim to land etc, no bother I thought, how foolish...........
Looking on as Keiran makes the "Legbreaker" look like a breeze

I go over,the wrong way, wrong side of the river

As I jumped in the current immediately dragged me to the wrong side,wrong direction and I went over sideways without my lilo,a few litres later I surface bleeding and in a bit of pain, proper fun.

Keiran once again making it look easy

As we approached Lower Falls we once again jumped off the lilos and took another big jump with similar performances as before. As we rounded the next corner a Father and young family were having a 'nice' evening by the river and the last thing they were obviously expecting to see were two numpties appearing round the corner on lilos. They were sat next to the last whitewater we expected to see but as I approached Keiran stood up to the side of the river and in a horrible moment of realisation I knew he was stopping to check the drop, i could only look at him in resignation as I floated by once again to a spectacular sideways tumble and re-surface still gargling and trying to swear, as i got back on my lilo and turned to see the families faces, priceless...............