Itanda Falls

first half of Itanda
second half of itanda


Itanda Falls is one of the longest, biggest and most technical rapids on the White Nile river. Classified as a grade 6, I would say that Itanda is the rapid that gets the most hype of anyother- at least among paddlers who come to the Nile for a short period of time. "Have you run Itanda?" "Do you think im capable of running Itanda?" "Whats the line for Itanda?" or "Itanda is such a sick rapid!"

Itanda is the last rapid one the day one rafting trip- where rafters get thrown into a hole called the badplace. Adrift Adventurers, on its brochure quotes Englands Prince William as having said "That was awesome! can we do it again!" Of his badplace experiance. It is the rapid where we get the techno music intro before seeing many rafts get violently surfed, and many rafters get slightly hectic swims. But is Itanda really worth all the hype?

The line on Itanda is composed of a sort of thread the needle move between three or four very large holes: The pencil sharpener, the cuban, the ashtray and the badplace. These holes are large, and often trashy. They are also subject to change with the waterlevels, as is the difficulty of excuting a clean run. The right side of the river is the recomended swim line, while the left side is much shallower, and rather nasty. One of the difficulties in running Itanda is that generally, to run the rapid, you can't scout it. The rafts take out on the right side of the river, walking around the big stuff, until putting in half way down for the badplace. (No raft has ever sucessfully run the rapid without flipping. One tried several years ago, made it to the cuban, then flipped. The other attempt was last year, and the raft flipped on the entrance ramp, causing the 7 guides to swim frantically to the right).
portaging the badplace

Itanda is undoubtedly a very large, very intimidating rapid. I deliberated for months (literally: eight of them) before gathering up the courage to run it. Over the course of the eight months i stared at the rapid countless times, pointing out the line for clients, and then taking them down the sneakline or chicken shoot to the right side of the badplace. As i said above, one of the things that makes Itanda so intimidating is that the entrance ramp is on the left side of the river, after a grade two lead in, meaning that once you commit to running the rapid, there is really very little option left but to run it. The entrance ramp is steep- you cant see what is below you, always a little intimidating and disorienting.
the entrance ramp to Itanda, middle Left in picture, big green ramp.

After running the entrance ramp, the first thing you have to do is ferry across the river, avoiding a little "fuckme" wave, riding up onto the back of the pencil sharpener (the first large, crashing diaganol hole). You ferry across towards the pencil sharpener in hopes of avoiding another hole immediately below you, in the middle of the river, called the cuban.

ferrying next to the the pencil sharpener

Some claim that the cuban is the best wave on the river. I think its gonna take some practice on the special before you go surfing the cuban, but then again... thats just me. Ive also heard it said that to know if you are ready to run Itanda, look at the cuban. If you are comfortable surfing it (i.e, surfing your way out of it when you hit it) then you are ready. Surfing out of the Cuban

Below the cuban and slightly to the right is the Ashtray, and a little while later, the badplace. Ideally, one goes right of the cuban, right of the ashtray, and then cuts hard left to go left of the badplace. Because of the way the holes are positioned, it is entirely possible to hit the cuban and the ashtray, and even the badplace, all in the same run. exhausting.
As i said before, there is a lot of hype and a lot of discussion about Itanda falls. It is one of those rapids that people collect, or add to their list. "You went to Uganda? Did you run Itanda?"I have even known of someone who blatently lied, claiming not only to have run Itanda, but to have "styled" it. Needless to say, this person never even attempted the rapid. Itanda is also a rapid that is being used to judge someones paddling capabilites, which, after having worked on the nile for several months, bothers me. Itanda is a rapid you should run because you want to, not because someone esle tells you to, or thinks you are capable of it or because someone else you know ran it. One of the reasons i was hesitant to run it was because i often get assumptions that i am not a very capable paddler, based purely on my size. I didn't want someone to look at me, decide that because i ran it, they could run it, with out ever having seen me paddle.
The nile is a forgiving river, but that doesnt mean you cant get hurt. Recently I had a client who was interested in runing the rapid. As a company policy, Kayak the Nile wont run you down it. I pointed out the line as we portaged an ran the sneak, and that was that. a week later, the client followed somone down, someone who really didnt know where they were going, ended up missing the entrance ramp, and swimming the entire rapid, after having been surfed in a nasty hole for a full four minutes. That kid is really lucky he made it through unharmed, all gear collected. To be honest, if the kid had followed some one who knew where he was going, he probably would have been okay. probably.

There is also a lot of talk about boaters who leave Itanda until their last day, and then follow someone down. Generally amoung those of us who work and live on the nile, this is deemed as not "running" Itanda. It is seen as a cheap copout. I personally can't really comment on the above. I ran Itanda my last day in Uganda, partly because i was busy working, partly because i was good with coming up with excuses to put it off. The number of times i turned down opportunites to run Itanda is astounding. And more than a little embarrasing. When i finally went to run it, my friend Davey led me down the grade two, and eddied out with me right above the entrance ramp. Then he took off, and disapeared, and i followed.I have this sharp image in my head, Daveys silver helmet, daveys green boat and broad shoulders silhouetted against the sun and the glare of the water. its the last i saw of Davey until the trailoff after the badplace, not that i was looking for him. I later heard that Davey was down at the bad place by the time I came through the entrance ramp. By that time, it was all survival boating anyways, as all of time suspends while you try and orient yourself, and find your line. The roaring of the water and the crashing of the waves is all around you, as is the glare of the sun and the spray of water. Fighting to keep your edge in the boily water as you make your ferry, i was unaware of the exact placement of the cuban until i hit it. It was lower water, i flushed right through, and had a clean line for the rest of it. My first reaction was that i was so disapointed i had waited as long as i did. I wanted to run it again. Ten months of hype for two minutes of paddling, was the best i could describe it. Was the hype worth it?

I dont know. Sometimes i think the hype makes people more hesitant to run the rapid, as i myself experianced. (then again, my first introduction to the rapid was 4o minutes of Itanda horror stories, everything that went wrong) and i didnt even see the rapid fully for my first two months. However, i also think that all the hype is what makes people want to run the rapid, even if they arent ready. I know several good boaters who were really irresponsible the first time they ran Itanda, and got spanked. In the end, i think the hype is okay- i think it affords a certain degree of respect to the rapid that is most certainly deserves. I do think that it gets in the way of being acuratley able to judge ones own abilities. My friends listened to me debate for months, and reassured me constantly that i would be fine, and i was. Maybe its good that i waited as long as i did, maybe before, i wouldn't have been ready. At any rate, i can't wait to go back and run it again.