River surfing

The following day I was tired and I had a headache. It was also the day I had planned to do one of the most ludicrous sports ever invented. Take white-water-rafting but replace the raft with a boogie-board; and now you have an image of what I was was about to undertake with less than two hours sleep and a hangover.

You basically wear a helmet on your head, flippers on your feet, life vest round your waist and hold a plastic boogie board in your hands. You then dive into some very cold, very fast running river rapids and try to hold onto your board until the end.

What was brilliant was that we were actually taught some flash little tricks as we went along. For example, if you hit an oncoming wave you are often thrown into the air and you can, if timed right, do a corkscrew in the air. Some others are if you get caught in a whirlpool, of which there are plenty, just point your board vertically up and you will be twisted rapidly downwards, like being sucked down a plughole, but will emerge back up again after just a few seconds. However my favourite, which was also the most difficult and rare to find, is when water comes from two directions and where they meet a rift is formed. Approaching this rift from the right angle you can push your board down under the water so it is in parallel with your body. As you hit the rift, the water will then pull the board down and you under with it and you can smoothly follow this underwater stream for in theory quite a distance. I was less successful...