Derrick Dobransky and his friend Mike Windrim figured all changes had been made to the Harvie Passage area of the Bow River when they decided to raft down the river on Sunday afternoon.
However, the restricted section of the river proved too powerful for the two men.
“I’m going as hard as I can and the next thing you know the water just takes the paddle right out of my hand and the whole boat just goes, and I fly backwards. Just sucked us right down. There is water coming in and I didn’t even know where I was,” Windrim said, describing the moment they lost control of their boat.
“It was very terrifying,” Dobransky said.
“If it wasn’t for my friend being such a good swimmer I don’t know what I would do right now. I have four kids and I don’t think I’d be home with them right now.”
The two men both ended up in the cold water. Windrim managed to pull Dobransky up to the surface and they floated to a rock between two sets of rapids. Within minutes, members of the Calgary Fire Department showed up.
“I didn’t even know I had that in me. In the dire situation. My best friend was about to die,” said Windrim.
“This was a life-and-death situation. I thought that was it for me,” Dobransky added.
Men were rafting on restricted section of river
Calgary firefighters confirmed they pulled two men off the rock on the left channel of the river and brought them to the east bank near Deerfoot Trail.
The weir the men were rafting in used to be known as a “drowning machine.”
Harvie Passage was originally opened to the public in 2012, and was designed to minimize the hazards posed by the weir and create recreational opportunities for both novice and skilled paddlers. However, the floods of 2013 wiped out that work, and now improvements are being made again.
The passage’s right hand channel is geared toward recreational rafters and has a slower moving current. The left channel is more challenging aimed at experienced kayakers.
A spokesman for the the fire department said that while the area is under reconstruction, only designated user groups working with government agencies should be on the Harvie Passage.
For now, a boom is in place warning people of the rapids at that location.
According to the provincial government, Harvie Passage is an active construction site, and for user safety will remain closed to navigation and the general public until the summer of 2018.