amen.

Again? We have to hash out the bootie beer rules again?

what if your skirt blows and yo paddle to shore with  half full boat?

Paddling a swamped boat is not swimming, gordon. The rules are simple, you swim, you drink. Not like those complicated raft guide beer reward rules for rescuing other guides customers, equipment, etc...

Just say NO!!!  Buy beer for those that rescue you.  One should never drink from a bootie!!!!

a round of brew sounds reasonable, though

I've have never drank a bootie and never will, whether I swim or not. It is a stupid and pointless tradition.

Maybe instead of assuming that drinking out of a bootie will save you from river karma, you should take a look at your skills, look at what did wrong, and figure out what you can do better next time.

good lord people. if you dont want to drink a bootie beer dont. if you would like to adhere to the tradition, do. there you go.

New Tradition;

we paddled the cascade last year early in the season and my old man ran low on water. I offered him some of mine, but he said he didn't want to waste it. He waded out and filled his bottle under the cool, clear, rushing current and made a joke about giardia.  His next three weeks were spent on the toilet.  You'd better watch your back, Ellingferd. we don't joke about the beaver fever.

i am certainly not advocating filling up a nalgene, drink the water from the river free for all. however, i think you are just as likely to get giardia by engaging in the act of kayaking as you are by drinking out of a bootie. while the bootie may be a more concentrated source of bacteria, probably not a more concentrated source of giardia. if it were, it still wouldnt be significant as you spend more time in the river than you do drinking out of your bootie, unless you swim every time you roll over and your bootie has been placed next to your pint glass.

or the Mississippi