The Bakersfield College Sports Club will be beating the summer swelter with a white-water-rafting trip on the Kern River May 8.
The adrenaline-pumping, wave-crashing event will serve as the club’s annual outing for its members, and it will also be free.
The complimentary cruise down the river was made possible by Eagle Rafting in Kernville, which donated two rafting trips – with 40 seats – to the BC sports club.
Dominic Kirkendall, secretary of the sports club, is excited about the donation and feels that it’s a great opportunity for students to get outdoors and experience something different while enjoying what nature has to offer.
Kirkendall and members of the sports club were figuring out what to do for their group outing this year.
Last year the club went hiking and was looking for fresh ideas when Kirkendall brought up the river-rafting idea. Kirkendall was familiar with the company because of his friend, Andrew Wood, who works as a river guide for the company.
“We started talking about doing a rafting trip and everybody was interested so we decided to ask [Eagle Rafting] if they would comp us, and they said they would,” Kirkendall said.
Wood, who is also a student at BC, likes the outdoors and thinks that the trip is a perfect way to get to know the surrounding Lake Isabella areas.
“What I started to realize is that we have such an available recreation area up here, and I actually got involved with rafting through a friend of mine. He got me into it and then I just got addicted to it,” Wood said about passion for rafting and the outdoors.
His favorite aspect of the job and what he does is helping people experience the joys of white water rafting.
“Being able to go out on the river and attack those big, gigantic waves and guide a whole group of people safely down the river is thrilling … you make peoples’ memories daily, something that they won’t forget,” said Wood.
Eagle Rafting’s manager, Janet Sharpe, was on campus for the “Fit and Fun” event hosted by the BC sports club and said that they wanted to get involved with the club as well as show students how rafting can be a fun and thrilling way to stay active no matter who you are.
“Not only is it an adrenaline rush and an adrenaline thrill, but it’s also fun for families and younger kids,” Sharpe said.
The adventurous members of the club will traverse through a mild portion of the Kern River that is appropriate for beginners without any prior experience. They will also be provided with proper safety gear, according to Sharpe who added that the section they’ll be rafting through is referred to as the “lickity split.”
During the “Fit and Fun” event, Eagle Rafting also gave away free rafting trips to students who competed in a contest to see who could blow up an inflatable kayak the fastest.