When I first caught wind of us going to white water rafting in Oklahoma City during our most recent visit, I was a bit terrified. I love the water and being on it but I’m not extremely comfortable with water sports. All I could think of was flipping over or getting stuck in the rapids and never coming home. A bit dramatic, I know but the idea was scary. I put on my big girl pants and went along for the ride – literally.
We arrived at Riversport OKC and it was a huge playground full of slides, tubing, zip lining, free jumping and more. My nerves settled down upon arriving and seeing all of the fun things going on at the park. The first thing that caught my attention was the amazing slides that took reached high in to the clouds. 
Experience the tallest dry slide complex in the United States! RIVERSPORT Adventures’ Cox Gigablast Zone offers two 72-foot tall spiral slides, the Sky Slalom and new Sky Luge that will have you racing up to 22 miles per hour before you get to the bottom. Or grab a friend and race on the tandem 30-foot Sky Dive racer slides.
I recommend purchasing the All Access Pass, it include whitewater rafting and tubing, plus all of our other adventures including the Sky Zip across the Oklahoma River. Day passes may be purchased online or in the park. If you but this pass, you get to experience it all for one low price.
Included in the All Access Pass was the one thing I had been dreading – whitewater rafting. My nerves grew stronger once I actually saw the white water waves, they were NO joke. I found this picture on Riversport OKC’s facebook page and thought I would share. It’s a glimpse of the whitewater rafting experience. 
We arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation time and got checked in. The guide checked to make sure we had on shoes (no sandals or barefeet were allowed) and he helped us get all of our valuables put away in a locker. Since i had never been whitewater rafting before, I thought that I could keep my fitbit on during the adventure and it wouldn’t get wet. I was completely wrong, not only did my fitbit get drenched but it broke from all the water! So a small piece of advice – put all valuables away in the locker before your ride because it’s rough and you are going to get very wet.
Before we got on the rafts, we were given lots of great tips from our guide – everything from how to sit correctly to how to save someone who might be floating down the waves. We were put in teams of six, so my husband and I were paired with a family of 4. Quinn and a young man sat on the front, I sat behind Quinn next to a girl my age, their parents set on the back row and our guide was in the very back of the raft. Thankfully, our guide gave us some practice time once we got on the raft. He was able to give us some lessons on how to row forward, how to row backwards and a few of the key terms he would be using throughout the experience. My mind was a bit frazzled trying to remember everything but as soon as we started going down the rafts all those fears went away because my adrenaline pumped in. Not only was the ride extremely exhilarating, it gave everyone on my raft a since of accomplishment when we would get through all of the waves without any hiccups.
There were other group who weren’t so lucky like the poor group of girls who were on a raft behind us. On our first round, one of the guys on my raft had to pull in a girl who had fallen off her raft behind us. She was perfectly fine but we caught her from having to go through the waves without a raft. Once her group got through all of the crazy waves, she was able to jump back on the raft and join her team. Well, on the second time down the stream, we looked back and the same raft who had lost one girl before had somehow flipped their whole raft! Our raft was able to help two of the girls while the others were rescued by the lifeguards who line the rafts.
Flipping your raft is absolutely terrifying but witnessing it for myself made me realize that it wasn’t that bad. There were so many people there to help that group of girls that they weren’t stuck for long. Riversport OKC has done a great job is teaching the guides on helping others, providing lots of support on the sides of the rafts in case anyone needs anything and giving us a wealth of knowledge before even getting on the raft.
We were on the raft for about an hour which seemed to fly by. Our whitewater rafting experience has turned out to be one of my favorites things that we’ve done while traveling. Not only did I push my fear away but I enjoyed every minute of it. We were drenched from the waves but I wouldn’t have changed a thing! 
Riversport OKC is located in the Boathouse district in Oklahoma City. Stop by and spend the day there, you won’t be disappointed – you may even overcome one of your fears! There are so many fun things to do in OKC, we could have spent the whole week there. We found a lot of our activities on Adventure Road, a site dedicated to all the amazing things highway 35 has to offer.
Fun Things to do in Oklahoma City:
- Go Whitewater Rafting in Oklahoma City at Riversport
- Solve a mystery at Escape OKC
- Stay in Luxury at the Skirvin Hilton
When’s the last time you did something to overcome your fears?
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