Riverboarding

Riverboarding is the North American name for a boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering. This sport is also known as hydrospeed in Europe and white-water sledging in New Zealand.

Riverboarding includes recreational and the swiftwater rescue practice of using a high-flotation riverboard, designed for buoyancy in highly aerated water.Riverboarding is believed to have originated in the late 1970s. It is claimed to have originated in France, when raft guides stuffed a burlap mail sack with life vests and went down rapids.[2] Soon, riders adapted a personal submarine shell for their molds and the plastic version of the riverboard was born.

Sometime in the late 1980s, Carlson began running rivers in California using an ocean bodyboard and ended up making his own board that was bigger, thicker and handles.European riders also developed a foam version (called a hydrospeed ) of the plastic board to reduce weight and avoid injuring each other during collisions that sometimes resulted from one rider travelling downstream and another facing upstream while surfing a hydraulic.

Today, homemade foam hydrospeeds are found primarily among European riders. A growing sport in North America, riverboarding has grown in popularity from media exposure and the emergence of commercial operators running riverboard trips.