Tuber drowns on Boulder Creek

[doublet]

The short version is that a group of tubers tried to run the elephant buttress rapid.

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/count...768168,00.html

[cecil]

BOULDER - A young man tubing down Boulder Creek died after losing control of his tube.
The man's identity has not been released by police, but he's between 18-25 years old. He was with a group of five other tubers in the creek on Sunday afternoon.

The victim's friends said their tubes were starting to flip over when they lost sight of him.


Witnesses on the scene tried to revive the man by administering CPR, but were unable to do so.

The victim's friends say he is from Colorado and had just returned from Thailand where he was teaching English.

Boulder County Sheriff Commander Phil West, says Boulder Creek was running at double the normal flow because of a water release from the Barker Dam on Saturday. Usually, the river flows at about 250 cubic feet per second, but Sunday's flow was at about 500 cubic feet per second.

The water release from the Barker Dam was necessary to prevent the dam from overflowing, officials said.

Stay safe out there guys...

[mania]

was this a no shirt no pfd beer in hand tuber and not a wetsuit, helmet, pfd tuber? still sorry to hear about it.

[leery]

where is the elephant buttress rapid? Is that the double drop about half way through the park?

i was watching the report from 9news.com and it sounded like some folks pulled him out of the creek in the pool underneath widow maker.

thanks for any info.
ryan

[cayo]

Sorry to hear about the tuber.Not to be callous but, is BC really running 500 the flows page shows 357 and so did Watertalk last night. The town run play gets good high ,the canyon at 350 excellent.
Do the cops just make stuff up?"usually runs 250??" usually is below 100,from May to July 100 to 800 cfs.with alot of variation.

Not to be a fascist but maybe if they ticketed tubers without PFD'S they could save a life or two,at least over certain flows they could post lifejacket required signs.To preserve the eye candy scene all female tubers would be required to remove pfd's when on shore,jk.

[doublet]

The Elephant Buttress rapid is the class IV+ rapid where the river leaves the road - about 1 mile upstream of the playpark.

I'm not sure what to say about ticketing lifejacket-less tubers. I'd probably tube the town section even at these flows. Sounds like the tuber was clue-less that the canyon section is a lot bigger than the town section.

[KSC]

where is the elephant buttress rapid? Is that the double drop about half way through the park?

No, elephant buttress is just below the bridge & climbing area upstream maybe a mile from the park. It's the main event on the run - a continous class IV+ section that I wouldn't want to tube or swim. We were putting on about the time this happened. We saw a lone tube in an eddy right below the Buttress, perhaps one of the party's. I'm not certain, but we talked to a news guy in the parking lot at the takeout and it sounded like it was a swim trunks, no safety gear kind of tuber.

The creek was running about 350 cfs, not 500. I wrote to the 9 news editor complaining about the inaccuracy and sensationalizing of their reporting, but no response.

Anyway, I always look at these events as really sad. The guy probably wasn't a bad person, just ignorant with respect to the risks of whitewater. I guess the lesson is, if you see guys running stuff unprepared, there's no shame in warning them they shouldn't be there.

[redbeard]

hmm, any news on the lone kayak mentioned at the end of the article?

[heliodorus04]

Pueblo took the pro-active step last year to make it a CITY ordinance that Life Jackets are mandatory on the Arkansas in their jurisdiction.

You may recall a 14-year old drowned there last year in the PlayPark while tubing without a PFD. This year, at the entrances on each side of the play park are clear signs indicating PFDs are required by law.

Anything like that posted around Boulder?

Sorry to hear about the drowning. My sympathies to the family and friends.

Helio

[Geezer]

More reporting inaccuracies. Channel 2 news started with a notice of a kayaker dead on Boulder Creek. When they got to the story, it was about a tuber. Again with the 500 CFS.

Maybe they got their information from the Durango Herald