Having fun on the water can mean more than taking the most exciting line in a rapid. For the mellow floating days on the water river trip games are a great way to spend time and have a laugh. Below are our four favorite river trip games.
Ducky Wars
Ducky wars on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Photo by Idaho River Journeys.
Find a deep eddy, take an inflatable kayak, and flip it upside down. Then two people climb on top of the kayak and stand at opposite ends. The goal is to knock the other person off the kayak and into the water without using your hands. To accomplish this involves aggresive rocking of the boat.
T-Grip Lean
The T-Grip lean involves two people standing on the outside tubes of the raft opposite each other. They then link their paddle T-grips together and lean back as far as they can while holding onto the blade of the paddle. The “loser” is the one that falls into the water first.
Raft Tag
Raft tag can be a long, drawn-out game, best for mellow days on the water. Take a tennis ball, or Nerf ball (anything soft) and tag the other rafts by throwing it at them. If the thrown ball hits any part of the rubber on the raft, a point is given to the raft that threw the ball. (Usually, a tagged raft that’s hit with a decent amount of velocity will give the ball a satisfying and enormous bounce.) To keep it fun, rafts can be defended by the passengers, so if they see a ball inbound towards their raft they can try to catch or slap it into the water, allowing them to retrieve it and to keep the other team from earning a point. This encourages sneak throws, long-distance hail mary tags and more.
Balancing Act
In a paddle boat, the contestant stands on the outside tube on the bow facing everyone. Using turns, forward and back paddle commands, the others in the raft try to knock the person into the water by knocking them off their balance.
Have a favorite game that we didn’t mention? Post it as a comment!