In March 2000 an accident that led to the death of 13 tubing participants shook the river rafting industry world wide.

It was this accident that singualry raised the safety standards of river opperations throughout South Africa and the world and in the wake of sadness of the deceased and trauma to the operator at the time of the accident left very valuable lessons to river operators of the future.

The Blackwater Tubing operation took the lessons and put into place a few fundamental procedures and protoclos for opperations on the Storms River so as to ensure the prevention of a recurrance of such and accident in the future.

Fistly an escape route was built by us to provide an exit point befoire  the confluence of the Witteklip and Storms Rivers.

Seconly for the first five years we had called off all Tubing trips during rainy weather allowing us adequate guaging experience in determining the rate of water level rise during such weather without putting our clients at risk.

Thirdly the lauch of the half day and full day high and low water trips had provided and invaluable 'financieal pressure release' mechanism as we are no longer reliant on opeartions in the  narrow gorge and now have a super fun and super safe section to run during periods of rainy weather.

Fourthly accurate onlie weather reports have added a great deal of safety as we are now able to predict river level conditions and make the call in advance as to which section should be oppearted. 

We ensure the use of our client and guide safety equipment at all times on river as was put in place by SARA post March 2000 accident. This has proven merit and was the sole reason for reventing serious injury in a rock jumping accident in early January 2014

We none the less reserve our right to cancel any river trip should we feel that the conditions are unsafe for operations. In such instances, booking are moved where possible or deposit payment are reversed or refunded. The frequent use of mobile phones has made this convenient and therefore relieved pressure for cancellations in the interest of safety.