Gore Canyon – Duane Roberson forgot the golden rule of Creature Crafting.
It’s hard to blame him. The Colorado Springs rafter and high school teacher was strapped into the Creature Craft – his first ride on the triangular, supposed self-righting raft designed and developed in Grand Junction – with his face under water in the Colorado River’s most fearsome rapid.
“I could not get my head above water,” Roberson said. “I was at the end of my ability to hold my breath. I was absolutely trapped. I had to eject.”
Darren Vancil, who was inspired to create the odd-looking Creature Craft after watching grainy video of a similar two-man vessel once used by Russian soldiers, was very clear at the mouth of Gore Canyon that pulling out of the seat belt was a very bad idea.
The craft often rights itself, he said. If needed, the topside paddler can right the craft, but it can take time, maybe 10 seconds. In those seconds, the bottom-side paddler is submerged. And when one paddler ejects, the other must follow, leading to a dangerous two-swimmer scenario in big water.
“You just have to have faith. Anyone can hang on for 10 seconds,” said the 40-year-old Vancil, a river-loving Dr. Frankenstein from Grand Junction who first sculpted a Creature Craft from old rafts in his garage in 1998. “You can get worked hard, but it’s never life-threatening. The Creature Craft always comes out. You have a bond with your partner – if you don’t take care of me, I get worked. I think Duane felt really bad about breaking that bond.”
Vancil is a sort of river pioneer. For decades, raft design has been stagnant. Other than self-bailing floors, raft designs have remained relatively similar since the first person paddled inflatable crafts in whitewater. Vancil’s creation – oafish and not very maneuverable – is the first radical departure from the tried and true.
The design features inflatable bars running above the heads of paddlers. That overhead rubber adds stabilization and helps to right the two- or four-paddler craft when it tips, Vancil said. He has created three generations of the design, improving and testing his Creature in the biggest water he can find.
There is no question Vancil believes in his Creature. He has lots of video to help persuade the reticent. There’s the clip of him and a beginning paddler pushing the craft through Cross Mountain Gorge’s Mammoth Falls at more than 11,000 cubic feet per second, a massive level that makes the rapid unrunnable in any other craft. There’s the clip of him and a partner purposely pushing their rubber-mounted bodies into Tunnel Falls in Gore Canyon to surf a drop every paddler avoids.
Blake McDonald watched the videos and enlisted on a trip.
“They get worked but they always seem to flush out,” the 25-year-old Colorado Springs dental school student said as he geared up for his first Creature Craft ride down Gore Canyon. “It’s something new. I really don’t like the idea of being belted in, but what the heck; school starts tomorrow for me, so I’m in.”
The videos, which played late night at the recent Gore Canyon festival, did little to persuade Charlie Ebel, a veteran Gore Canyon paddler with decades of experience on whitewater.
“Those things are inherently dangerous,” Ebel said. “They are, without question, the most inefficient way to get down a river.”
Vancil and his loyal crew of Creature Crafters don’t understand the animosity.
“Kayaking was a new sport at some time,” said Dirk Klein, who has a small investment in Vancil’s dream. “Lots of people see this and say, ‘No way. I’m not doing that.’ It’s a mental barrier.”
Vancil sees his planned Creature revolution as more closely related to the growing number of playboating kayakers who throw themselves into foaming waves and play. Only Vancil needs staggeringly large holes – the type of barn-sized maws that deter all other boats – to surf.
“Say what you want. All I know is that we are staying upright in holes no one else paddles,” he said proudly. “We are providing a chance for your average boater to get in water that takes other boaters years to prepare for. And it’s way safer than rafting. There is no comparison.”
Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
