riverman wrote:

Hmmm, 10 out of 15 people who have attempted Niagara have made it
sucessfully. That's a lot more than I would have suspected. I guess
'unrunnable' is a bit overzealous of a rating, eh? Imagine if more of the
attempts weren't just people in a barrel, but expert river runners who could
read a good line, what the success stats would be?

Not much better I'd imagine. I don't care how good you are at reading
lines, you're gonna have a bitch of a time navigating that sharp 90
degree turn at the bottom.

I wouldn't be suprised if it were possible to create some sort of craft that
would make taking people over the falls (not helterskelter, but with a
definate line in mind, and carefully judged speed) a commercial possiblity.
Maybe even in our lifetimes; I suspect that its more do-able than we think.

Well, if we can design a space capsule that drops into the ocean from
outer space, we can design some sort of pod that allows the passengers
to survive a drop down a waterfall. It actually doesn't even sound all
that challenging - calculate the G-forces, strap them in, deploy the
airbags, yada yada yada. But what's the point?


P.S. Is everybody sure that it wasn't a dummy that went over the falls
while the guy was strategically placed in the water at the bottom
awaiting "rescue"?

--
//-Walt
//
// The Volkl Conspiracy