Kauai canals provide a tubing thrill

By Linda Duval,

On Kauai, visitors are offered several ways to discover nature while having a blast.
You can take a catamaran tour to explore the inaccessible side of the island, nicknamed the Garden Isle for its lushness. During the tour, you can stop to snorkel and play in the sparkling waters off the Na Pali coast. You can swoop in a helicopter over the Waimea Canyon.
Or you can try mountain tubing.
Kauai Backcountry Adventures introduced this activity in 2003. The company has exclusive access to a private tract, the former 17,000-acre Lihue Plantation, where the tubing takes place. Adventurers are hauled up the mountain in a six-wheeled, military-style vehicle, given a safety talk and then plopped into inner tubes in the canal.
"Pretend you're falling back into a recliner," the crew advises.
Our two guides tell us how the canals, or irrigation ditches, were dug in the 1870s by plantation workers to channel rainwater to sugar cane crops. Sugar cane no longer is grown here, but the waterways remain.
Whatever their original intent, the canals offer a great way to spend a vacation day.
After an hour of twirling and bobbing through the occasional rapids and one heart-stopping drop, we pretty much float and relax.
Then, one member of our party, not paying attention, drifts into a side channel. She grabs a root to stop her progress, and the rest of us make a chain, hanging onto feet, hands or life-vest straps to swing around the corner and retrieve her.
As the tubing ends and we're helped out of the water, I keep pushing myself to the back of the line. I don't want to quit.
A catered box lunch beside a waterfall and natural pool ends the excursion. Heads nod, ready for an afternoon nap on the trip home.
We had a busy vacation, but mountain tubing was what we talked about most when we returned home. It gets you close to the nature and island history, and it's a safe thrill for the family.– On Kauai, visitors are offered several ways to discover nature while having a blast.
You can take a catamaran tour to explore the inaccessible side of the island, nicknamed the Garden Isle for its lushness. During the tour, you can stop to snorkel and play in the sparkling waters off the Na Pali coast. You can swoop in a helicopter over the Waimea Canyon.
Or you can try mountain tubing.
Kauai Backcountry Adventures introduced this activity in 2003. The company has exclusive access to a private tract, the former 17,000-acre Lihue Plantation, where the tubing takes place. Adventurers are hauled up the mountain in a six-wheeled, military-style vehicle, given a safety talk and then plopped into inner tubes in the canal.
"Pretend you're falling back into a recliner," the crew advises.
Our two guides tell us how the canals, or irrigation ditches, were dug in the 1870s by plantation workers to channel rainwater to sugar cane crops. Sugar cane no longer is grown here, but the waterways remain.
Whatever their original intent, the canals offer a great way to spend a vacation day.
After an hour of twirling and bobbing through the occasional rapids and one heart-stopping drop, we pretty much float and relax.
Then, one member of our party, not paying attention, drifts into a side channel. She grabs a root to stop her progress, and the rest of us make a chain, hanging onto feet, hands or life-vest straps to swing around the corner and retrieve her.
As the tubing ends and we're helped out of the water, I keep pushing myself to the back of the line. I don't want to quit.
A catered box lunch beside a waterfall and natural pool ends the excursion. Heads nod, ready for an afternoon nap on the trip home.
We had a busy vacation, but mountain tubing was what we talked about most when we returned home. It gets you close to the nature and island history, and it's a safe thrill for the family.