Some river runners run extremely difficult and dangerous rivers in remote, undeveloped areas. Some of them lost game with rapids. Plaques on the cliffs above these rapids remind us their names. What are they looking for on whitewater? Excitement, fun, sense of risk, and some more adrenaline in blood? Yes, sure. Scenery, beauty of nature? Of course, too. Sounds of river, fish silhouettes under the water, bright huge stars on the night sky, and silver band of the river under moon light in deep canyon? Yes, definitely.

Maybe even more important: they want to come back to our childhood, to feel friend' shoulder, to seat around campfire, and talk, singsongs with open soul and heart?

In this essay we want to tell our readers about passion of our life. During my 27 years long life in rafting I met a lot of people "crazy" like me. People who leave warm comfortable home, cars, theaters, restaurants, go to cold river in remote areas and who will say: "You are at home, seating on the couch, watch TV, and drink cold beer. Sorry, you have bad luck. I am wet, cold, and smell with smoke, my muscles sore, but I am happy here on Siberian (Tibetan, Mongolian, Colombian, etc) river. I am happiest person in the world because my friends can and me see and do something that very few people seen and did.

Almost all of us came to this passion by very similar way: friends, sometimes parents took us run river on the raft, folding kayak and than… Than it was simple magic - we could not stop. Again and again we wanted run these rapids, hear sound of fast water. Ask any rafter and kayaker - their stories will be amazingly similar.

Of course history of whitewater exploration is different in different countries. We will try to introduce you to whitewater "culture" in opposite corners: USA and the former Soviet Union (we will call it Russia further).

Like many things in US basics of whitewater culture in America have roots in business. Such situation led to creation of great whitewater gear absolutely necessary for commercial rafting: big and strong rafts, (last ten years self-bailing ones), wide choice of personal equipment: wet and dry suits, paddling jackets, special helmets, booties, etc. Because of necessity to carry extra gear and food the oar raft driven by one boatsman is very common for United States.

Commercialization (especially such famous run as Grand Canyon on Colorado River) brought high popularity of whitewater runs, appearances of people who wanted Run River individually. Kayaks became to be extremely popular among such people. A lot of companies offer numerous trips having different difficulty - from simple Class 2 to very complicated Class 5+ (like Cherry Creek run in California). They are 1 to 12 days long, depending on area and length of the river.

Thousands of people come to meeting places and than companies take care of them. Usually companies provide everything: guides, lifejackets, wetsuits and helmets if necessary, and rafts, of course. People in multiday's trips provided with tents. Guides prepare all meals (we can say that usually quality of meal is not worse than in good restaurants). Majority of guides is young people, sometimes with pretty high education, interesting to talk with. There are a lot of girls among guides. Season usually is from April to late October. Till June rivers runs fast because of snow. There is a lot more excitement at this time, but a lot more risk as well. You can do trips both in the West and East of US, but the best rivers are located in California and Idaho.

Prices of commercial trips are very different and depend on river, company, etc. Usually range of price from $80 to $150 per day (from put in to take out). Commercial rafting spread widely from USA to other countries in first turn to South America where every year the new commercial trips are appear. Say, additionally to very popular runs in Costa Rica and Chile, there are some new countries on rafting world, such as Equador, Guatemala, and Mexico, where rafting trip combined with Aztec pyramids and ruins.

Of course, there are a lot of whitewater fans who run rivers on their own. Even for us, professional guides, it is absolutely necessary to run new rivers every year for ourselves. You remember - whitewater is in our blood. Long time Americans were sure that they are only "fashion designers" on whitewater. But in the end of eighties they discovered they are not alone in this business. Russians beat all on two first World Cups organized by Project RAFT in Siberia and then in North Carolina. They actually put western rafters on the knees - Russians catamarans with paddlers on their knees beat rafts and won slalom and races on all competitions.

History of whitewater rafting in Russia is very different from American one. For Russia running of steep mountain rivers was a sport, the same as mountaineering, climbing. From seventieth they have had championships in expedition whitewater rafting. Russians created unique equipment: light high maneuverable two- and four person catamarans. These boats were reliable, easy to repair and together with high competition between rafters allowed to run incredibly complicated high volume rivers in Siberia, Pamir, Tien Shan, and Caucasus. Russian style was very different: rafters used almost exclusively hand made equipment: boats, tents, life jackets, paddles, and backpacks. Lack of roads, transport help to design very interesting equipment. Usually Russian trips were 7 to 25 days long - with no support, possibility to buy food, etc. That led to pretty specific situation: you could do such trip only as team ready to strong limitations in food and personal belongings. Russian rafters are team workers. Long time even on kayaks Russians preferred to work as team - they used two person kayaks. End of eighties was time of discovery of new whitewater world. Westerners discovered not only new very high skilled whitewater runners and new equipment, but extremely interesting real wilderness rivers: rivers that people never seen from the road or even trail, some canyons that you could reach only if you run the river, rivers having natural flow (in US majority of rivers have dams and water regulation), rivers where during week or two you did not see any people but you partners. Right now situation has been changed: several (actually very few) outfitters do trips in Russia and some former Soviet republics and tourists can get almost the same service like on US rivers, but anyway this country did not discovered yet.

Even now, ten years after first World Cup competitions in Siberia, this huge country remains to be "white spot" on whitewater world map, but it is 1/6 part of dry land! Two years ago several whitewater runners Began to work on Good Will Project Whitewater Russia-USA. Leader of the Project Martin Wong is hoped to do 1.5month expedition in Russia and Kyrgyzstan coming summer. We plan to run at least 4 rivers with International team of whitewater runners from USA, Russia, Germany, and Britain. Hope it will help to develop whitewater connections with Russia and to open door to Russian rivers for westerners.