OK,

1) It sounds like a pretty normal swim in whitewater except that

2) Your PFD wasn't fitted correctly. IT SHOULD NOT RIDE UP
SIGNIFICANTLY. The guides should have checked before launch that your
PFD was on and adjusted correctly.

He may have been correct in that no RAFTERS have died on the lower
Gauley. However, BOATERS have died on the lower Gauley. A couple of
years ago ('99), a kayaker flipped right at the put-in and got washed
into the boulder sieve at Koontz's Flume and, despite heroic efforts
of bystanders, died.

There was also a squirt boater who got pinned and died at Stairstep in
'86

(actually, I'm surprised that the AW Accident database only has 3
events for the lower Gauley... better than I expected. Of course, it
isn't that difficult a river and WV mandates a guide in every boat.)

There are a lot of undercut rocks on the Gauley - upper and lower.

Unless the river was in flood, there was no Class V anything on the
river. If it was in flood, you had no business being there, any of
you. This river is Class IV best case.

It is possible that the boat got cleaned of people intentionally. It
happens on some rivers. I would hope that it would never happen on
the Gauley... just too many undercut rocks to do this with any kind of
safety.

Ted