Stupidity on the Umpqua. I get Sucked Under.

I crashed into a rock when on the Umpqua then got sucked underwater today and caught in an undertow. I thought I might not make it out alive. I did.

My innertube is in sad shape and certainly is not whitewater fit. I didn't think there was going to be whitewater on this float and the innertube was all I had.

It doesn't hold air well anymore. One side does, so it is bloated fat, while the rest of it is skinny. Kind of like some people have skinny little legs and a big fat belly. When I sit in it, the low side is almost underwater, while the bulging side was a nice back rest. But this isn't a good set up for rapids.

I found how bad it was about ten minutes into an Umpqua float with my brother, his wife and daughter and their friends.

They had big nice innertubes and some store bought made for floating innertubes.

I had a life jacket along. I was the only one who had a life jacket along. I didn't wear it, because of peer pressure not to wear it. Stupid. Especially given the shape of my innertube.

I wasn't even paying attention. My brother was slightly ahead of me. We were chatting. He'd said it was a flat float. I guess I didn't expect any rapids. And suddenly we were into a rather significant rapid with large waves. The waves were large enough that in the trough, I couldn't see what was coming up next.

When I did emerge, there was my brother stuck churning against a big rock in his big stable innertube. I plowed into him in mine. The low side of my tube went underwater and under the edge of the rock and I got dumped out of it. An undertow then took me down.

I had not gotten a good breath before going under. It all happened so quickly. I couldn't get to the surface and I badly needed air. It was almost like someone was holding me under. I was being drawn between large rocks underwater in strong current, around rocks and a corner.

But I also got caught in a dead zone of sorts. Water pushed me down into it, but didn't move me out of it. In fact, it was quite scarey, to not be moving at all with a crush of water holding me there.

I stuck both arms straight up, trying to feel for the surface, to see if I was even close, because I REALLY NEEDED AIR. I could not break the surface with my arms up. I could see my tube up above me, but could not get up close enough to the surface to make a grab for it.

The water was churning and bubbly. I thought to myself "they'll say on the news 'she was a strong swimmer' and 'she had a life jacket along but was not wearing it'". Then suddenly I was popped to the surface by the current. Just in time, too. I knew it might be temporary and took as deep a breath as I could. I was pulled down again immediately but I was moving underwater this time.

This time I had plenty of air. I can hold my breath a long time. So I wasn't scared anymore. I had my eyes open and could see the rocks coming up. There was a shelf, too, and I didn't want caught under that. I shoved off the shelf with one foot but grabbed ahold of the ledge above it with my hands and found a hand hold. I then manuevered up the side of the rock to the surface and clung to the small ledge, then worked my way down, still in current, to where I could get a place to rest against the rock.

My brother's wife had snagged my tube. I put my life jacket on and recovered, understanding I could easily have been just another Oregon drowning victim, despite being a strong swimmer. That innertube I was using, was completely unsuitable for floating a river with rapids.

I flipped twice more because of my bad innertube, but with my life jacket on, it was no big deal. One can still easily hit their head on a rock, when tousled about in rapids, however. I did scrape up my leg on the second flip, when the low part of the tube hit shallow rocks and again got sucked under flipping me over forward and rolling me on the rocks before I could roll onto my butt, which is well padded.

I envied the nice tubes of the rest of the party after that second dumping.

The third dumping came again in a rapid, but now, well aware of what would happen with that tube, knowing the skinny part would catch water and go under, I just rolled over and around in the water and grabbed the tube and rode it out with one arm through it until slow water.

I have tube rubbed raw arms. They hurt. This comes from sitting in the tube and using my arms to paddle. My inner arms at elbow level would rub the tube constantly. They are raw, literally. This problem was made worse because of the big bubble my tube had. I had that bubble at my back and shoulders, but this made it harder to paddle over it, especially since the front part, that wouldn't inflate well, sinking into the water.

It was fun anyway, despite getting sucked under in the beginning and the two subsequent dumpings and my raw arms. I don't see my brother often. I have two brothers but have not heard from the other one in a year. This is the second time in a year I've seen this brother and it was nice.

He's living under quite a lot of stress. They are remodeling their house, expanding it elaborately, which may go on for another year and in the meantime, they are living in their former garage. This can really cause tension. In addition, he ruptured his achilles tendon and had to have surgery. He was in a caste for quite some time, and now must be very careful and is a bit stiff and slow on it and will be for several more months at least.

I don't travel to their home town at all, due to the bad memories that will be there forever for me. My fathers' actions tainted the area in black for me. I avoid that area completely even though he is now dead.

I was not sure I was going to live in that first dumping into the river, especially before I got delivered to the surface by the current for a breath before being pulled down again.

I was fighting though, by trying to think my way out of it. I didn't want to drown that's for sure. It was like slow motion or something, all these thoughts, when it couldn't have taken more than half a minute. Maybe it was longer. Maybe it was less. I don't know. I didn't panic.

I knew I was supposed to not fight the undertow, but swim with it at an angle to the surface. I was trying to protect my head, too, from getting banged on rocks, with my arms up around it.

It all worked out.