Surf's up - on the rivers

Big hit in Europe, riverboarding is gaining popularity

David O. Williams, Special To The News

Saturday, July 3, 2004

Even though his sport has been riding a growing wave of popularity in Europe for more than a decade, Shane Bolling still gets a gamut of reactions when he slips into a Colorado river to take on whitewater on his custom riverboard.

The owner of Lakewood-based Ripboard, Bolling is one of the few commercial riverboarding outfitters and distributors in North America, while in Europe some rafting companies attribute up to a third of their business to the unconventional form of whitewater surfing.

"People look at this like it's something from Jackass," Bolling said of his fledgling sport, which involves running a river in a wetsuit, helmet, lifejacket and fins while clinging to a 2-foot-by-3-foot hunk of molded polyethylene described by some as a "boogie board on steroids."

But once people try riverboarding, Bolling said they're often surprised by how easy, safe and fun it is. There's less of a learning curve and less expense than kayaking, he said, and far more thrills than rafting.

"I'd been rafting several times and fell out and swam, and between the thrill of swimming and the scariness, I said, 'Hey, this is kind of fun,' " Bolling said. "Then I stumbled on (riverboarding in New Zealand) and found that it was a great way to get down in the water and experience the river, and the whitewater is right in your face."

Which might explain why one of the few injuries he has sustained in seven years of riverboarding, other than occasional bumps and bruises, was a chipped tooth.

Five years ago, Bolling launched Ripboard in Lakewood and has been tirelessly giving lessons, holding demonstrations at white-water events around the nation and selling more and more boards ever since. Describing sales as "gradual" thus far, Bolling said he expects sales this year to increase five-fold over last year to about 300 boards by the end of the summer.

He compares riverboarding with its snowsport cousin of snowboarding, which 20 years ago was viewed as an oddity at the nation's ski areas but now is banned at only three resorts in the country and accounts for about a third of all skier days nationwide.

Bolling said there is some resistance to riverboarding in the more traditional boating communities, but it's beginning to break down as more and more people are getting up close and personal with the river.

"That's why I go back to snowboarding and skiing. At first people said, 'You're going to kill yourself or hurt me,' and you still get some of that," Bolling said. "(With riverboarding), the majority of people have that opinion until they get on it and actually ride it and they realize they're not swimming, they're floating on top of the water.

"Once they get into it, people say, 'This isn't that difficult or extreme.' "

In fact, many first-timers say it reminds them of tubing, except their stomach is in the water, Bolling said. But as benign as that sounds, riverboarding can be as extreme as you want it to be.

Darryl Bangert, owner of Vail-based Lakota River Guides, said he encountered four riverboarders playing in Class V (with Class VI considered impassible) Pine Creek Rapid on the Arkansas River earlier this month. One of the riverboarders shot deep into a particularly nasty hole, then kicked his fins and ripped out of it - a maneuver that would have swallowed and spit out most kayaks.

Bangert, an avid kayaker, also has been riverboarding for seven years, using longer, lighter Carlson boards that originally were designed for swiftwater rescues. He loves the sport and scoffs at old-school kayakers who look down their noses at it.

"Look at all the kayakers who are complete idiots when they're in a play spot," Bangert said. "Riverboarding is just another way to play in the river, and everyone just needs to be a little more mature and share."

While his company still makes most of its money off rafting, Bangert said he loves the thrill of riverboarding and its intimate connection with the river. He said most of his clients aren't ready for the rush just yet.

He compares that immediacy to skiing a powder field as opposed to snowmobiling it.

"Riverboards are a unique method of travel on the river, and they're good and bad," Bangert said. "The good part is they have more versatility compared to even a kayak. You can go into stickier hole and because you have less floatation you can get out of them easier and because you're down in the water you can blast in a hole."

The downside, Bangert said, is that it's harder to ferry over to a wave (the method of horizontally navigating a river) and to catch an eddy. Also, you're much lower in the water than you would be in a boat, so it can be harder to read what's coming next downriver.

Despite its lack of commercial appeal thus far, Bangert said the sport's future is bright: "I think it's a really cool thing, and I want to get into more and more."

How to get started

What equipment you'll need:

Ripboard riverboard - around $400

Carlson riverboard - $340

Wet suit - around $120

Life jacket - $120

Helmet - $40

Booties - $25

Fins - $45

Knee and shin pads also strongly recommended

For general information on riverboarding or on lessons, go to www.ripboard.com, call Shane Bolling at 303-904-8367 or e-mail him at info@ripboard.com.