BARKING MAD

BRAD McLEOD,
MAD DOG RIVER BOARDING, QUEENSTOWN
Brad McLeod is in love with his job as a riverboarding guide 45-minutes down the road from Queenstown, on the Kawarau river.

“We have two main aims while we are there,” he says. “Firstly that people have a good time and get a bit of the adrenalin rush that Queenstown is known for throughout the world. The second is that with the right amount of respect a large river such as the Kawarau doesn’t have to be the scary thing that our parents told us it was when we were growing up.”

Brad first experienced riverboarding while training to be a Kiwi Experience driver. He loved it but never considered working on the river at that time. A couple of years later while living in Queenstown, he and a friend helped Mad Dog Riverboarding out as they were short of a driver. Brad decided to train as a guide and worked at least part of the summer for three of the next four years, before the opportunity arose to purchase Mad Dog at the start of the 2006/2007 season.

“We take clients from Queenstown forty five minutes down the road to the Kawarau Gorge,” he explains. Once there, they are kitted out with all the latest gear they need to board down the river. They are given an instructional/safety briefing before entering the water to start mastering the necessary skills, then riverboard a 7km section known as ‘Roaring Meg’. The first five kilometers is continuous white water. There are guides in the water swimming around and assisting clients when help is needed. Once the rapids are over people are taken for a ride on a rescue sled on the back of a jetski. At the base there are a range of things to do, rock jumps, a rope swing and a water slide. Brad gets to work with and meet new and adventurous people every day.

“When I can get out from behind my computer I work in one of the most naturally beautiful parts of New Zealand, doing a job I don’t just like or enjoy, but love to do,” he enthuses.

This seems like a love affair that is going to last a long time. Brad aims to grow the business over the next three or four years, ultimately making people throughout the world aware of what riverboarding is and how much fun it can be, not just commercially but also, like kayaking, on a recreational level.”