The New Zealand guide company, XII Mile Delta Canyoning (www.xiimile.co.nz), incorporates multiple water slides into its daylong river-exploration trips. "That plunge was a highlight of the day," Netzer said.
On the New Haven River in Vermont, a clear stream coming out of the Green Mountains near Bristol, I took my virgin plunge in a narrow chute above a pool. It was 11am, and two other sliders were frolicking upstream. The water was cold and utterly clear. The slide, a slot running horizontal to the river's main flow, tugged on my feet as I sat down. "Lean back," someone yelled.
I held my breath and straightened my arms. The water took hold, and I was free, a fish rocketing downriver, skipping off smooth stone, then dropping into a pool.
Circle Current, the local name for this whitewater stretch of the New Haven River, includes several narrow slides through its protruding bedrock slabs, one 12m long.
Elisa Adams, a 48-year-old chiropractor from Concord, Massachusetts, hesitated atop the lower slide. "Water's cold," she said.
But she slid anyway, shooting underwater on her back, disappearing under the froth, then re-emerging to plunk into the pool below.
Her daughter, Ariana, 18, was up next. "I've seen these slides before but have never done it," she said a moment before sliding off.
At Danby Slide, our next stop, a half-dozen swimmers were upstream of the main chute, warming up on a little slide. Hajdasz dipped a foot in the mountain water. "About 16°C," he said.
Always eager to swim, Hajdasz went first. "Whoo-hoo," he yelled on the way by.
Gill, a student from nearby Bennington College, slid second.
Soon, a line was forming at the top of Danby Slide. Its 18m length, combined with an algae-slick surface and a launching into a pool below, make the slide one of the best in the state.
I rode it three times, sitting bolt upright, letting my body literally go with the flow. The ride accelerates as it goes down, getting steeper. Then it launches from a lip over a cascade into deep water.
Miaya and Marissa Trombino - sisters, eight and nine, respectively - came down with a scream. Miaya piggybacked Marissa, both plugging their noses midair before the splash. They dog-paddled to the pool's edge.
"That was fun," said Marissa.
"That was so fun," mimicked Miaya.
A man barreled down Danby Slide on an inner tube. Three people slid past as a train.
"Busy day," said Hajdasz, tromping up to slide again. "I want one more ride."
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