There seem to be plenty of great ways to accidentally kill yourself in the name of fun these days; of course, Sydney has most of the high-adventure extreme sports covered, somewhere, for those athletically-inclined.

And you’d think Whitewater Rafting wasn’t one of them – it’s not like we’ve got those mountainous rocky streams as per Queenstown, or a Colarado River carving out our own harbourside Grand Canyon.

No… but we do have Penrith.

I know many CBD folks living within 10 clicks of Martin Place rarely have an excuse to head that far west, but regardless, I took the drive out last weekend to try out the Penrith Whitewater – and it rocked.

Built during the Olympics (for the Kayak stuff I believe), Penrith Whitewater is the largest man-made whitewater course in the southern hemisphere. It’s hard to describe it, but imagine a giant looped pool on a slight slope with a huge amount of machinery pumping an Olympic-sized swimming pool of water into it every few seconds at one end… we’re talking a serious amount of water and a serious amount of bumpy waves too.

Having tried the regular river rafting, the man-made course was okay though perhaps not quite as dangerous as I’d hoped. This is probably a good thing – you get to try your hand at rafting in a fully controlled environment with not only an experienced guide in the raft but a bunch of guys chasing you around in kayaks ready to rescue people who fall out. Probably better to try out rafting this way than out in a remote river somewhere where you’ll potentially float quite a long dangerous way when you fall out.

And yes, you do still fall out on the man-made course. It gets just as wet and messy as the real deal, and is a perfect way to spend a hot summer day if you’re a little over going to the beach every weekend but still want to stay cool.

A couple of hours of bashing around the course costs you $89 which is well worth it, and as the boats themselves can take up to 8 people, it’s a perfect group activity, especially if you’re into watching your less-fit, less-waterwise friends get thrown around and destroyed. What can be better than controlled carnage?

The Plug: