[Every Day]

Ok guys. I went tubing again toaday from Osbourne road down to the crossing and what I saw horrified me. As we were coming up on the corner where I KNEW the young girl died on wedenseday, I watched a group of tubers (ON inflatable rafts) go right through the same spot. I lost sight of one of the rafts and on closer inspection a guy on his raft was scrambling to get his friend out of the water. All I could see was his head, and learnt quickly that his legs were trapped below the surface. He was quite big and able to hold himself up until 2 friends got over there, and then another 6 went over to help after that. I quickly made the 911 call (I always carry my cell phone in a water proof case). I took 20 mins from the time I called for search and rescue to get out there, and many times I though the guy was going to die. There was one point where he went under for a good 30 seconds before his next breath. He did live, but when search and rescue got him out (with the help of his 8 friends who had a rope) he was so cold and tired that he couldn't move anything excepct his head. He was taken out in a strecher and had hypothermia.

To give you all an idea of how powerful the river is in this one spot, It took 8 PEOPLE to hold just his head above the water till search and rescue got there. Not only were the people holding him but he also had 1 rope tied around him and an inflatable raft behind him trying to keep him up. I am going again tomorrow and I will take pictures of this area for those of you who are going out. Please be very careful, this young man almost died today. Once again I will say that you CAN see this jam from a good 300 feet away, and for 20 feet before the jam the water is shallow enough (knee deep) for you to stand up. Hopefully search and rescue or the police put a sign up to warn people of the danger here. All of the people in this group were from Vanouver/Burnaby/Richmond and someone told them the river was a safe and fun ride. They knew nothing of the dangers ahead. Hopefully people learn from this.....

 

[eggma]

i was one of those guys me and my two friends went over there and it was nuts thats all i have to say he had a y shaped log jamed against his hip holding him there just happy he made it out

 

[mrmugs]

Why would you tube the upper river? ??? With amount of debris in there I would think it a pain in the butt, not to mention VERY dangerous.
I always thought people tubed the lower river, slow and lazy. Isn't that the point of tubing?

 

[STLHDR]

Why would you tube the upper river? ??? With amount of debris in there I would think it a pain in the butt, not to mention VERY dangerous.
I always thought people tubed the lower river, slow and lazy. Isn't that the point of tubing?

The "jam of death" is just barely upstream from the crossing bridge, so its in the lower mid river. (If that makes any sense lol)

 

[anthony]

glad he made it out, the more people that get stuck and or drown the more easily it will make them close the river to swimmers and tubers.

Wonder how many lives will be taken before they take some sort of action

People must be pretty stupid to tube down the same spot.. after hearing about a girl drowning in that exact spot

 

[Every Day]

Right now the Upper is actually relativley fast and fun with no log jams at all. You hardley even need to kick up there unless you want to get into bigger rapids. The worst are right now is just above the crossing. You can either choose to go left or right. The right section is shallow and you would pretty much have to walk down it so guess what, everyone takes the left. Just in that little section above the crossing there are a good 2 jams. The first one is the one the girl died at and the guy got stuck in today. The second one is just down from it and easily has the potential to seriosuly cause injury and death (even worst than the first one cause you can't really get around it without walking). The first Jam in the left section is probably just around 500 feet from the entrance of that side channel. You will see a "root ball" in the middle of the channel, at that point start kicking to the edge and walk around the next jam ( "Jam of Death" as described by Shane). You will know it when you see it, there are flowers there also to mark the spot where the girl died, and the guy today was only 10-15 feet below those flowers.

Be Careful and please be smart and use common sense out there, it could be the difference of you seeing tomorrow :wallbash: If you happen to be out and see another one of these "incidents" the only way you can help is by getting on the log jam and trying to pull, once again be careful, you dont want to follow them into there, and hang on tight, the current is very strong. Whatever you do, don't go into the water for them, you're just ricking you're own life.

 

[mrmugs]

I just went to the lake today with the wife and kids, somehow being under my own control in the water appeals to me. eace:

 

[boy2its]

It'll be great if somebody could post a picture of the site here for us to see exactly what area to avoid.

 

[anthony]

It'll be great if somebody could post a picture of the site here for us to see exactly what area to avoid.

Dont go down it.... its safer

 

[fishnfvr]

Makes me sick to hear how terribly STUPID these kids are! They must know that someone died there already - what the hell does it take for them to realize that this is just too dangerous! (OH BUT ITS FUN!) I wonder if that kid learned his lesson? If it was my kid and I found out they were down there I would go down myself and kick their ass! Do these parents have no idea what their kids are up to?? This is really sad how stupid these kids really are!

 

[Dubz]

Only tube from the "on the way" store and down. I have had sooooo many friends say they almost died because of jumping in by tamihide (cant speeeelll). Too many trees build up in that section and turns into a gauntlet. If you really wanna hit the rapids there is a white water rapid place with EXPERTS that will show you a good time just down from the fish and games club.

 

[anthony]

Only tube from the "on the way" store and down. I have had sooooo many friends say they almost died because of jumping in by tamihide (cant speeeelll). Too many trees build up in that section and turns into a gauntlet. If you really wanna hit the rapids there is a white water rapid place with EXPERTS that will show you a good time just down from the fish and games club.

At Tamahi is the Chiliwack River Rafting

 

[eggma]

right down from the fish and game club there is a run filled with rebar sicking out of the water its everywhere for about 200 ft

 

[Crazy Drifter]

Another fatality yesterday up at Tamahi. A woman on a GUIDED rafting trip drowned when the boat she was in flipped. Goes to show the young bucks who think the river is a cake walk even these guys that are on the river from april on everyday can have S#@T go wrong. Hey Fvr your statements exactly I got the cuff up side the head a couple times from the old man from pissing around down on parts of the river that I should'nt have been on. Thre kids have a total lack of education about the river and the parents are just as bad . Maybe thier parents envision floating water like the canal( which is where most of them should be) instead of rippin down rapids which is where these people are going. If we get another hot blast I wouldn't be suprised to see the count up to 5 or 6 by the end of summer :wallbash: :wallbash:
Cheers,
Crazy D

 

[Every Day]

On the Way Store and down is the exact spot pretty much man where this Jam of Death is sooooooo :naughty:, if you havnt been tubing yet don't tell people to do it unless you are talking the back channel, which as eggma said has reebar sticking out everywhere. :wallbash: Better to just stick to below the crossing. I am assuming that they are probably going to close above the bridge anyways, we will see how today goes :wallbash: issed:

 

[abbyfireguy]

Thats what happens when you let your teens out unsupervized..They all know better than us stupid old parents who have experience that they don't ..Amazing how bulletproof some of these jackass teens think they are :naughty:. But, I do remember my parents got much smarter once I got to be about 21..Quess I wasn't any different,just lucky many times :'(..
That's why I go out and get crazy with my teens and their friends,at least there will be one voice of reason with them...They still think I'm nuts,just not stupid when it comes to water safety..
I just wish so many teens didn't have to learn the hard way ,these lessons that have deadly consequences.

 

[mrmugs]

But, I do remember my parents got much smarter once I got to be about 21..

So did mine!! Are we brothers?

 

[Richard Nixon]

Amazing how bulletproof some of these jackass teens think they are

Just like one teen on here who posted this in another thread about tubing the Vedder "I wouldn't particularally reccomend a lifejacket"
I'm just tiring to figure out if he is bulletproof or just brain dead

 

[Every Day]

Lol that was me.... and by the way, the girl would have died with a lifejacket on anyways. And on top of that the guy probably wouldn`t have lived if he was wearing a life jacket because he would have been lodged a lot deeper into the trees and his friend wouldn`t have been holding him up. The current there will take you down easily, life jacket or not. Obviously I`m not brain dead because Im not the one dead or trapped, and I get out around prickly areas. I dont consider myself bullet proof but you guys can think what you want. :wallbash:

 

[Daniel]

It's not just the younger folks that are being stupid about it. I've seen a lot of thirty-somethings floating down with beers in their hands. Just plain ignorant and drives me crazy.