‘This is a wild river’: Boise floaters reminded to take all precautions
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- Boise Fire Department reminds Boise River Floaters to always wear a life jacket.
- It is discouraged to tie rafts and inner tubes together.
- Floaters should stay aware and monitor the FloattheBoise.org website for updates
It has been just under two weeks since the Boise River opened for its floating season — a little earlier than it has in the past — and people on rafts, kayaks and tubes already have encountered a variety of conditions.
Higher water levels and quick currents persisted for the first eight or nine days, and floaters saw some dangerous conditions last weekend and early this week.
As they do each year, Boise Parks and Recreation officials and people with the Boise Fire Department have urged floaters to be aware that the river always has the ability to be perilous and unpredictable. And that everyone should have life jackets.
“The problem we have is that the hazards change day by day, and they change with the flow of water,” Boise Fire Department Division Chief of Special Operations Mike Walker told the Idaho Statesman in an interview.
Earlier this week, the Boise Police Department announced the death of a floater who drowned after his tube got caught on a tree, causing him to flip and go under the water. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital Monday evening.
Boise resident Shelly Paino told the Statesman she was floating the river Sunday with her family and experienced dangerous conditions that left her scraped, bruised and feeling quite shaken.
Paino said she noticed that the river was flowing a little faster than usual, but it wasn’t until she and her group reached the drops and rapids that they were hit with a significant change. Paino said the drops would “suction” them into the water, and several people found themselves pushed up against rocks and without their paddles.
“I was thinking about it later, and I was like, I would’ve been screwed if (my family) hadn’t caught my oars, and one of my family members actually pulled me out of the river, because I couldn’t get out, it was flowing so fast,” she said.
Paino said the group decided it was time to put on their life jackets, which she said might have saved her.
“People just need to be aware, I tend to think things like that are just a one-off occurrence, but when I read about (the drowning), I just thought that sounds eerily similar to the conditions that we were in, and so it just made me pause, and I just want others to be aware,” Paino said.
Boise officials urge safety precautions: No. 1 is life jackets
The river, which figures to be busy as usual over the July 4 weekend, was flowing at about 860 cubic feet per second Thursday. Earlier this week, it was at 1,290 cfs three days in a row, which is on the high end of what’s acceptable. The float season encompasses river flows of 500 to 1,500 cfs.
Before the calendar turns to midsummer, the river’s flow is typically higher, as the snowmelt releases more water and a greater volume flows from Lucky Peak.
But that doesn’t mean the river can’t be dangerous the rest of the season, Walker said.
“This is a wild river, and although we do mitigation efforts, we cannot mitigate all hazards, and we can never say the river is safe to float,” he said.
The Boise Fire Dive Team has made two swift-water rescues in the river so far, Walker said. Last season, the team responded to 39 river rescue calls. That number has lowered significantly since 2022, which saw 137 calls.
That number dropped significantly when Boise Parks and Recreation partnered with the city to launch the FloattheBoise.org site, which provides information on safety precautions every floater should take, day-by-day conditions and an interactive map that shows hazards along the river.
Doug Holloway, director of Boise Parks and Recreation, urged people to monitor the website before heading to the river. He also said that no one should float alone and that “the No. 1 (thing) is to have a life jacket.”
Walker agreed.
“A life jacket is probably the biggest factor in whether you survive an incident or you drown,” he said.
Free life jacket loaner stations can be found at Barber Park and at Ann Morrison Park, the entry and exit points of the Boise River float.
Holloway and Walker also said floaters should not tie tubes or rafts together, which is a common practice. It can cause tubes to get caught and wrapped around river hazards, and make navigation more difficult, both said.
Consuming alcohol on the river is illegal — though also common practice — and people are highly discouraged to be intoxicated while floating, Walker said, because it reduces the ability to take care of one’s self.
For those planning to float the river Friday, there will be no parking at Ann Morrison Park because of holiday festivities there. There will be a pick-up and drop-off area, however, and shuttles will be running all afternoon.
