The Airbus Charity Challenge Raft Race 2009 took place at The National Whitewater Centre at Bala, Wales to raise funds for the Wales Air Ambulance. Facing the 16 teams of willing volunteers taking part was a steep and rocky run over 2km through the rapids, which takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. Graded between levels three and four (maximum difficulty is six) the rapids posed a challenge to both stamina and courage.
Before being allowed to get wet each team was put through a rigorous safety and rafting briefing by the instructors at the centre. It was at this point the alarm bells should have rung, as the WNT team lost a man overboard – while the raft was still on dry land!
“When the call came from Aim Engineering we couldn't turn them down,” said Matthew Darbyshire, technical sales engineer, WNT (UK). “Aim has been a loyal customer of WNT for many years and not only that, it was an experience that I, and the rest of the team wouldn't have missed for anything.”
The real success of days such as these, though, is the amount raised for charity and while the total has yet to be finalised it is expected to be several thousand pounds.
WNT
www.wnt.com
