Personal Narrative Draft

A Float Next to Tragedy

            Despite being told our whole lives we should never get into the water of a canal, my cousin and I were floating down a canal on inner tubes. We had started at his house in the country, the middle of nowhere, and having a blast. The water felt cool in the 105 degree heat of Sanger, CA, and what is better than floating down a river with your cousin on a hot day. We had done it already only a month previously. Plus the water was lower this time. We were not worried about anything out of the ordinary happening. Little did we know that our pleasant time floating on the water would soon come to a rapid halt and only sheer luck would get us out of a bitter end.

            “Hey we better get on the side and check out the rapid before we attempt to go down it,” I said to my cousin. He agreed and we paddled ourselves over to the edge of the canal and clambered up the angled dirt walls. Both of us took a look at the slight drop in elevation of the canal where the rapid was created and remembered how just a month ago when the water was higher it was a churning death trap for any who braved its course. We both had known the swirling of the water would have trapped us and drowned us.

            “It looks so fun now! Not nearly as bad as it was last time,” said my cousin.

            “You first,” I exclaimed.

            “If I die, tell my hamster I loved him,” he said jokingly. He then walked back and hopped on his inner tube in the water. He then floated towards the rapid looking frightened, but excited. He went down… and passed through it smoothly and fine, the rapid was not powerful enough to trap him. All was well and we both went down the rapid a few times until we decided to continue on our journey down the canal.

            We were nearing the end of our trip located just after one of many bridges we cross when we remembered the second rapid that we descended on our previous trip. Surely if this trip the big rapid was safe then the rapid we descended last trip is perfectly fine. That is what we were both thinking at least.

To this day I still cannot remember why my cousin and I were so spread apart on our inner tubes. I was leading about 50 feet in front of him and that would prove to be my lifesaver. I quickly approached the final white water rapid and glanced back at my cousin falling behind on his tube. The wind sped past my face as I descended the rapid. “Haha!” I yelled. Then it all came to a stop and I knew something was wrong. “Get out of the canal now!” I shouted towards my cousin.

Luckily he did not question why and he had enough time to get out of the canal before hitting the rapid. I was stuck. The water from the canal was going down the slant and traveling along the concrete floor for a distance then was being pulled back on top and headed back towards the rapid creating an eddy. It was impossible to observe what was happening from an external view but that did not matter. It was too late and I was stuck being pushed repeatedly back and forth on my tube by the eddy and the rapid.

“What the heck is happening? Why can’t you keep moving?” my cousin yelled down from the side of the canal.

“I have no flippin idea! I just need to try and get out of here!” I replied.

“Just get out of your tube and swim out of the current!” he cried over the roar of the water.

“It’s not that easy, if I get out and swim but can’t make out of the current pulling me back, I might get stuck here being flipped over and over until I drown!” I responded. Now that that was settled I paddled to the side of the canal to attempt to climb up the sides. Then I realized they were 70 degree 15 foot tall walls. That was not an option. I then kicked off the concrete slant that created the rapid in attempt to surpass the current that was pulling me back. I paddled away from the rapid with all my force. I did not make it and I floated back and hit the rapid. I tried a few more times then I yelled over to my cousin, “Hey throw me a stick or something that I can use to push off the concrete!”

“Okay one sec, let me look for one,” he replied. He walked away for a while and then came back with a thick, long stick. “You think this will do?” he shouted.

“Throw it over to me!” I said. He threw into the water and I retrieved it. This was it, the last idea I could think of. I got mentally prepared for what I had to do. I cocked my arms and placed the end of the stick on the concrete slant. Then, with all my might, I pushed off the slant with the stick and… “snaaaaap!” a foot of the stick broke off. “Shoot!” I cried. I quickly, with what was remaining of the stick, pushed off the slant over and over paddling as hard as I could to get away from the reversed current. All my attempts were futile. I dropped the stick back in the water feeling hopeless. “It appears that it seems, that it seems to appear, I am stuck,” I sadly joked to my cousin.

I was scared and worried about how long I would have to sit there until somebody found us. Let alone that it is illegal to even be in a canal, so if I needed professional help I would be in huge trouble. I then wished I had listened to all the people that warned us of the dangers of canals.

All of a sudden a surge of adrenaline rushed through me. I was determined to make it out of the eddy. I grabbed the stick and with a quick prayer I braced the stick on the slant. I pushed off harder than any attempt before. I then paddled away from the rapid with such quick, powerful strokes I thought my arms would fall off. Then all of a sudden, I was free of the eddy. I felt elated and relieved. Just like that, I was safe, and my cousin and I happily, headed, home.