There are quite a few rumors floating around regarding the whitewater at Primal Quest Montana. For the record, here’s the truth:
Myth #1: People swam (or riverboarded) the rapid named House Rock, and got thrashed.
The Truth: Every racer got out of the river before House Rock. An ignorant spectator saw a couple kayakers paddle through the rapid and shortly below where racers were putting in a couple of them briefly lost their riverboards. He called the cops, apparently. It was a non-issue though.
Myth #2: The water was rising in the afternoon, which started causing problems for racers on the water.
The Truth: The water actually receded in the afternoon and peaked in the middle of the night, according to our visuals every day and according to the USGS gauges. The reality is that the racers later in the day were more tired, spent, and less skilled at whitewater than the racers earlier in the day. That’s the truth – but that’s not as dramatic, so drama makes the news. It’s false though.
Myth #3: Things got "out of hand" and quickly.
The Truth: The shit definitely started hitting the fan all at once, but never was it out of hand. I had a great safety team in place where they needed to be and they kept cool heads and followed the plan. The kayaking section turned out to be where people started having the most trouble, and we did have a close call with the team that hit the strainer on the island and got stuck. But it was never out of hand, and I’m proud of my safety team for doing a great job.
Myth #4: There were multiple rescues going on simultaneously on the riverboarding section.The Truth: As the skill levels deteriorated later in the day and the water section was closed off, we had to pull everybody off the river. This included finding all the boaters and racers who had been separated from their teammates. There were a couple rescues of racers who were on the kayaking section, but no real rescues on the riverboarding section.
There are also a lot of stories of people almost dying. I can empathize with the feelings that one experiences in a hydraulic, but I witnessed a lot of the people who did struggle in those few holes and nobody was in them for more than a second or two. Granted, that can feel like a lifetime – trust me, I do know.
But considering I got to go through much of the GoPro footage from all the teams, some of those who thought they had almost died were literally under water for less than 2 seconds. Yeah, it’s scary. But you didn’t even come close to dying, and despite all the screams and tears, the video says nothing really happened.
But just because it may reflect poorly on PQ and on me, I have to set the record straight because there were no holes that I believe to be the least bit dangerous for racers, with the exception of House Rock which became a mandatory portage. Safety was my number one concern, and the course was definitely safe.
Challenging, maybe frightening, but safe.
The thing about whitewater is that it’s 80% mental. So teams either absolutely loved it, or they utterly hated it. But nobody got hurt. In my mind, that black and white response and 100% safety level says it all.
Great shot of Josh Galt by Andres Vargas