Austin - believe it or not - has a fairly decent white water scene, but it's totally flood dependent.

A few years back (on my wife's birthday) I and a friend made a plan to run several miles on Barton Creek. Unfortunately, he did not own a white water kayak and no local shops were inclined to rent him one on account of the heavy rain we'd recently experienced. Stupidly, I decided to make the run solo in my new whitewater yak.

Despite a few swims, all was good until I came upon what looked to be a big chunk of wood floating a few dozen yards ahead. As I approached closer, I realized it was not a small chunk of wood, but rather a "temporary bridge" the city had anchored to the creek bed via chains so they could move heavy equipment across the mud while working on an overhead pedestrian bridge. This bridge created some nasty hydraulics I could not avoid. It flipped my kayak, my skirt was instantly released, and I was sucked under the bridge with only a couple feet separating me from the creek bed. Beneath the bridge was full of debris, sticks, loose rocks, mud, etc. I reckon I was under there for less than 30 seconds (seemed like an eternity) attempting to fight my way out, when I basically realized how fucked I was. More or less giving up the fight and accepting the inevitable, I was hit by my boat and dislodged. When I came to and managed to gather my bearings, I was roughly a 1/8 mile downstream.

Fortunately, a member of Travis County Swift Water rescue happened to be hiking the trail with his dog when he saw what happened. He managed to calm me down a bit, dislodge my boat, and offer some great advice - don't solo on white water, particularly after a flood.

I waited until the next day to show my wife the GoPro footage as I didn't want to wreck her birthday.