Ohiopyle: Death At Dimple Rock and my near-death experience
On August 13, 2022, a fellow WhiteWater Adventurer, Julie Moore, passed away on Dimple Rock at the Ohiopyle. The same Rapid where myself, and others, also had their rafts flip over. Some drowned but were luckily rescued. Unfortunately, one of the 70+ rafters that day, between 11 am - 4 pm on the lower Yough River, didn't make it. After having my own near-death experience and later discovering someone died on the same rapid, I decided to make these videos to hopefully bring more safety measures to Dimple Rock to prevent something like this from happening again. Deaths have been reported, but incidents, including near-death incidents, have been ignored. We need safety and transparency, especially for inexperienced rafters, children, and elderly adventurers. Below, you will see three videos with three separate, unscripted transcripts. Each clip reveals my personal story, embarrassing photos of my own injuries sustained that day, clearing up misinformation.
If you had a horrific experience or know someone who has, let's join forces, and please reach out to me: info@zenaefilmz.net.
Videos:
Video 01: Death At Dimple Rock | Zenae’s Personal Full Story:
Video 02: Death At Dimple Rock | Zenae’s Bruises:
Video 03: Death At Dimple Rock | Clearing Up Misinformation:
Transcripts:
Transcript 01: Death At Dimple Rock | Personal Full Story:
00:00:05:00 - 00:00:31:17
Zenae
Hi, this is Zenae. I'm using character animator because I don't like to show my face on YouTube and stuff like that. I wanted to say the story that happened to me over the weekend. I want to do it unscripted style so I can just let it all out. So you'll see this YouTube video for people who don't feel like reading, or they'll be an official written story to go along with this.
00:00:31:17 - 00:00:55:06
Zenae
And this isn't for my new website. This isn't for clicks, this isn't for attention. This isn't for any of that. A life is lost. And if I can do anything to help stop this from happening again, I'm going to do it. Because of what happened to me, what happened to few other people. What happened on Saturday, August 13th, could have easily been avoided.
00:00:55:17 - 00:01:16:19
Zenae
So if anybody who knows me knows that I love Metallica, they are my favorite band. I will travel the world for them. I've traveled to France. I actually technically went to France twice to see them, you know, in the documentary and them live at Hellfest and like, you know, there are things even with that where you say, Oh my God, I almost died to see Metallica.
00:01:16:19 - 00:01:39:04
Zenae
I got crushed into the barricade, thought that was going to be it. And experiences like that when you never really had a full near-death experience like that. But this is something else .Anyway. When Metallica announced the shows in over the spring to be back in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, there was no question. I was like, I'm going to go, I'm going to go.
00:01:39:23 - 00:02:14:07
Zenae
And I had some, knew some people out in Pittsburgh, and we decided to make it like this really fun trip because like when would we get this opportunity? Never. We got the tickets, everything was going great. And we decided to, you know, do adventures, do something like outdoor activities, like make it a fun time. So I got these whitewater rafting tickets from Whitewater Adventurers, is the company at the Ohiopyle for the lower level of the Yough River.
00:02:14:07 - 00:02:40:23
Zenae
And I am not going to attempt to even pronounce that river correctly. So you just look up Ohiopyle. So I even like I think I had an Instagram story of saying, oh my God, we're going to die! Like, just joking around like, will I make it for Metallica? Just something stupid. But it was an excitement, you know, I'm somebody who has anxiety, who has generalized anxiety.
00:02:40:23 - 00:03:12:12
Zenae
I can be a hypochondriac. I am afraid of so many things so this year is all about facing my fears. Facing my fears, and going through certain challenges in life, accomplishing it alone, doing what I can to keep fighting the fight to live our lives. Right? And so I decided to go for it. I've always been kind of like afraid of like the waves, like I've been in the ocean before, but like, I had some fears and I even like stopped going in the ocean for quite a bit.
00:03:12:15 - 00:03:43:09
Zenae
So as the time went on, finally the weekend happened in August. We had tickets for August 13th, 2022, and it was supposed to be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., a full day of whitewater rafting. My idea of whitewater rafting, yes. I admit, naive, ignorant, foolish. But I trusted the people I was going with. I heard it was the easy route.
00:03:43:09 - 00:04:02:15
Zenae
I heard there was going to be guides like it's going to be safe. So I didn't even think to even do a Google search for it, like I just said, okay, we're going to do it. It's going to happen. We get to the place and instantly they're like, Why do you only have three people? And we're like, uhh..., is that a bad thing?
00:04:03:10 - 00:04:32:00
Zenae
And they're like, Nooooo, no, it's fine. It's fine. And rewind a little bit. Apologies. When we got there, everybody had to sign a waiver. And, you know, all those damn forms like we get all these forms, whether it's like for a new credit card or, you know, going for for the vet or even a doctor's office or just any of these stupid little waivers.
00:04:32:00 - 00:04:53:06
Zenae
And yeah, I call them stupid, little, because or at least I myself never think anything of it. I just like, what is this? You know? Okay, sure. Here we go. So I signed it. No clue. We put on our life vests and our helmets and, you know, it's like the when you're on the plane and they talk about what to do and people like stop listening.
00:04:53:11 - 00:05:18:02
Zenae
Well, I actually listened to what they were saying and I made sure my helmet and my life vest was on properly. But then I just had flashbacks of like when I took a ferry ride to Fire Island when I was a kid and we had to wear these like life vests for what felt like no apparent reason. And, you know, I remember sitting on the raft, they're all like looking at us, like we have such a few people in our party, like, what's going on?
00:05:18:02 - 00:05:45:08
Zenae
And I'm just raising my hand like a dumb idiot, like I'm inexperienced. I was just so excited to go and just trying something new. I was really going into it blind. I was excited about facing my fears and challenges and doing something adventurous. There was another guy there who admitted his fear of drowning and wanted to accomplish, you know, facing his fears.
00:05:45:08 - 00:06:01:22
Zenae
He wanted to get over that fear. There was like roughly two busloads of people. The guides warned us that we only had three people, but they didn't really warn us at the same time, because if they did, if there was really something wrong with that. They would have asked, Is there a party of two? Is there a party of three?
00:06:01:22 - 00:06:25:04
Zenae
Or had a guide with us. But that didn't happen. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, when they were telling us about how to put on our life vest and our helmet on after everything was on, they said, okay, we're going to walk over here. But when we get to this spot, it was either when we got to this spot or before we were walking, they said, We're going to have guides come and check you to make sure your life vests and helmet are on properly.
00:06:25:04 - 00:06:45:12
Zenae
That never happened. They never did that. They never gave us a head count. It was very nonchalant and I just thought it was very chill. These guides were young, fit, adventurous, and it just seemed like a very chill experience, I'm like, All right, whatever. Think it's on, right? The thing's out. So the two fingers under the helmet thing that that looks good.
00:06:45:12 - 00:07:03:04
Zenae
Sure. We had to carry the raft down to the river and with just three people and a big raft. And I'm a small person, so I'm not a weightlifter. Let's just leave it at that. So it was tough, I mean, to go downhill and I couldn't see anything. So I'm like, ugh, already. But, you know, I was like, We're going to do it.
00:07:03:04 - 00:07:20:17
Zenae
This is going to happen. And we get on the raft. And first I'm thinking like, we're going to sit on like the blue middle thing. But no, we had to sit on the edge and put our feet under the blue middle thing. I was like, What the heck is this? I'm not going to survive this. And then we had to have one person steer and two people row.
00:07:20:17 - 00:07:42:00
Zenae
I'm like, Oh my God, basically what I thought was each person was going to have a guide with us or something, but guides were around. So it was just literally the three of us doing all the work on the raft. Now, if I was like an athlete, adventurous person, body builder, sure, no problem. I'm just your average Joe.
00:07:42:07 - 00:08:10:22
Zenae
Josephine, whatever you want to call it, person, you know, and it wasn't just me. We had there were some fathers, mothers, there were children, people of all ages were there families, there! Families! It wasn't, you know, you're your jocks and this that no people were going for a family trip thinking fun adventure for the first time. And we do the first rapid we get on the raft and we have no idea what we're doing.
00:08:10:22 - 00:08:31:17
Zenae
And we get on the first rapid. And right then and there, we flip over and I was listening to the guides saying, Don't touch the ground because your foot can get stuck in something and you can drown, something can happen. And another thing was when they said it was only two feet, I was like, Oh, why the hell are we wearing a life vest for only two feet of water?
00:08:31:17 - 00:08:54:12
Zenae
I didn't take any of it seriously and that was my ignorance. But I followed the rules regardless of what I thought I was learning as I went and I didn't how dangerous it was. In my mind., who would have thought an easy route with guides, with families around would be some sort of dangerous activity? And because we only had such a few people in our raft, we were learning.
00:08:54:12 - 00:09:15:08
Zenae
We flipped over on the first one. I remember listening to what they said, Go on your back, keep kicking your legs because you don't want to touch the ground. So I kept kicking and kicking and kicking things wasn't well on the first one. It was scary. Eventually, as I'm holding onto this raft, I didn't go under. I think I was fine with that.
00:09:15:08 - 00:09:32:21
Zenae
The life vest worked. We were floating a bit. That was kicking. I just didn't know what I was doing. I was kind of like handling what I, you know, how I handle stress, like shock. It was just a new situation for me. So I kept kicking and finally I got rescued to go up on the raft. After rapid one,
00:09:33:00 - 00:09:58:06
Zenae
we were like kind of ready to go. But I was motivating myself, you know, we were looking forward to this for months. We've never done this before. Let's do it! We decided to continue. Also, we didn't know where the exit was. Key thing there. I think we did the next two, it was like the cucumber and another, I don't know if it was the railroad, it was the one where you had to go left center, right center or something like that.
00:09:58:16 - 00:10:21:17
Zenae
And I mean, I was terrified. I was shaking the whole time. I was rowing for dear life and I fought through it. We didn't flip those. We came close and the whole time the raft wanted to flip because there were so few of us. But I kept rowing and rowing and rowing and like acting like my life literally depended on it.
00:10:21:20 - 00:10:53:12
Zenae
So I'm like already terrified. But we made it. We made it. We made it through all of these rapids. And it was starting to feel like, Wow, this is actually fun. I was just about to enjoy myself until... We were waiting at the side. I look at my Fitbit, keep that in mind. I look at that and it said 2:04 p.m. on Saturday, August 13th, 2022. 2:04 p.m. Eastern and they announce the Dimple Rock.
00:10:54:02 - 00:11:14:08
Zenae
They told us that Dimple Rock was class two. They said It's a tricky one that you have to be careful and they're only going to allow one person, one raft at a time. They said there's going to be one rock where it was going to make you want to flip, but if you lean towards the right, if you lean somewhere or do something, it won't flip.
00:11:14:11 - 00:11:35:11
Zenae
It was like our raft has been wanting us to flip the entire time. I have a bad feeling about this. And so I was like, I was just really nervous. I was really paranoid but I said, Zenae you know, you really got to stop being afraid. You've been kicking it with these. You can do it! You can do it.
00:11:35:11 - 00:12:02:07
Zenae
And so I really tried to motivate myself. I think we hesitated, like letting other people go in front of us and everything like that. So, so we went and, we're rowing. Rowing. And we made like the first portion of it. But then there was the rock and we went right into it. It flipped over and I went on my back thinking I would float, but I went under the rapids on the Dimple.
00:12:02:07 - 00:12:26:05
Zenae
Rock works like a vacuum. It sucks you under. It wants you in that undercut it wants to kill you. It is dangerous and I'm not exaggerating. And I went under and I remember thinking, Oh, wow, I'm drowning. I am drowning. And I had a few days to process this. And, you know, you act okay when you're there because other people are there.
00:12:26:05 - 00:12:48:07
Zenae
Now that I'm home alone, I'm like, process everything. My choice was either to continue to drown or to take a risk and stand up. I don't know what I don't know. It was just like just a moment. All you had is all you have is a moment. And that moment could have taken my life away or could have taken my life away.
00:12:48:07 - 00:13:09:23
Zenae
I thought I was going to die and I don't know how, but I stood up and I'm not a religious person, but like it was an act of God or my father or the universe or something. There was a flat surface in front of me. I don't know how. I don't know how far under I was. I could have been under two inches, two feet, I don't know.
00:13:09:23 - 00:13:31:13
Zenae
I just knew I couldn't breathe. And I was swallowing the river water and I stood up and all of a sudden, like, I have no idea what's going on. The the guide said, this is a good spot. Stay right here. Okay. So I look up and there's the rock with the rapids, the water just keeps coming, like trying to push me off to kill me and I'm holding on.
00:13:31:13 - 00:13:50:15
Zenae
I'm freezing because the water was pretty cold. I mean, it's okay once, but when you have this water shooting at you, you start to shiver a bit and I'm like holding on. And I also look up and more rafts. More rafts are coming up too. Like all it would take is one person, one raft to shoot me off and and literally kill me.
00:13:50:15 - 00:14:06:19
Zenae
And so I had that fear, too. And I'm trying to talk to the guide. I'm like, because he's in the kayak, I'm just like, Why can't I hold on to you? You said we could hold onto this. He's like, No, you got to take the rope. I'm like, No, I know myself. I'm not taking that rope that will kill me.
00:14:06:19 - 00:14:23:03
Zenae
I'm not taking that rope because I know how I swim, I hold my nose and I knew if I went back in that water, it would have sucked me under and the water would have gotten in me and I would have drowned again. And you don't want to drown. You don't want to drown on your way out.
00:14:23:03 - 00:14:45:17
Zenae
It is this fucking terrifying thing. I said, I'm not taking that rope. And the guide's like, No, you have to grab onto it. You have to grab onto it and like, go on your back. I'm like, No, I'm not doing that. I am not taking that rope. No, I am not. And so what happened after that... It was a little distraction because.
00:14:45:17 - 00:15:11:22
Zenae
Oh, wait, sorry. Before this, I was like, where? Where's my party? Where's my party? And they say, It's okay. Your friends are safe, they're on land waiting for you. So here I'm thinking,. once I get rescued, that's it. We're leaving. We're done. We're done with this. Okay? And I didn't know what to do, and all of a sudden, more people fell off their raft and fell underneath the same thing.
00:15:12:04 - 00:15:36:10
Zenae
But they when they got up and I don't know if they were standing, I have no idea they weren't underwater. And the rescue team grabbed them right away. They were able to save them right away. So I wasn't as lucky. And other people were far off than me, too. But what happened then was after this they left. Everybody left, and I'm by myself.
00:15:36:10 - 00:15:56:16
Zenae
And I could have been by myself for 30 seconds, 3 minutes, but it felt like so much longer. And I started bursting into tears thinking that was it. I was like, They're going to make me take that rope. They're going to forget about me. And I'm just stuck here on this rock by myself. Just so scary. And I didn't know what to do.
00:15:56:16 - 00:16:14:21
Zenae
I did not know what to do. I never experienced anything like this in my life. I didn't know what to do. And all of a sudden.All of a sudden, I look up. And there was a couple on this black raft, on this black raft. They weren't part of our group and they knew they knew I didn't want to take that rope.
00:16:15:01 - 00:16:35:22
Zenae
They knew it. And so the guide comes back and he's like, They're going to come get you. And I'm looking up at the couple and they're trying to word it like, "we're coming to rescue you.." And I said, okay. And they finally came over and I grabbed the rope on the side of their raft so hard because I was afraid of grabbing their oar. I needed the land.
00:16:35:22 - 00:16:55:14
Zenae
So for me, at that time, the land was that raft. So I held on to the rope of it,. I grabbed it so hard that I think I almost broke it off. And finally they got me into their raft. And I'm shaking. I'm shaking. And I'm thinking, okay, this is it. This is when they take me to land and we're done.
00:16:55:14 - 00:17:17:02
Zenae
We're going to go. We're going to leave. This is it. It's over. But no, no, it wasn't. Wasn't over. So what happened was we they're paddling me to to my party. The two well, two busloads or one and a half busload. I don't know because there was no head count. Remember, there was no head count and multiple rafts fell.
00:17:17:06 - 00:17:51:02
Zenae
And we I saw my party on two different rafts and we had to somehow come together. And I found out people drowned. People drowned heavily. Rocks hitting them. Things happened. Other people drowned and got hit. Multiple people, multiple people fell out of the rafts. Multiple rafts flipped multiple, not one. And as I'm in the raft with my party, I saw a daughter crying and I said, I feel exactly like you thinking that she had a scare, but I didn't know what the real story was.
00:17:51:02 - 00:18:13:08
Zenae
The real story was, I believe her mother was Julie Moore, the 50 or 51 year old who died that day from drowning. The same rock. Dimple rock. And so I didn't know this then. So we're back. We're on a raft and we're going to the lunch spot. So no rapids. We made the big one and everything else is supposed to be easy here on out.
00:18:13:10 - 00:18:31:20
Zenae
And this whole time I thought like, Can we leave now? Can we please leave? Like, I almost died. I don't want to go back on. I understand people who are adventurous, people who who like doing this stuff, who does it all the time, who, you know, gets the hunger and urge to be like, "You gotta take risks, man..
00:18:31:20 - 00:18:50:14
Zenae
or else that's it with your life, Like might as well just sit on your ass and do nothing," type of people. But no, we almost died and we were done. We had enough of our thrill, you know. And we asked the guide we're like, Can we go? Can we leave? And they're like, Oh no, the only way out is through the river.
00:18:50:14 - 00:19:09:07
Zenae
There's no real safe exits around here. I'm so sorry. I felt trapped. I was traumatized. I didn't know what to do. And we get to the lunch spot, and here I'm like, okay, do I risk getting eaten by bears in the middle of the woods or do I wait to die in the river? And then people are like, There's poison ivy, too, over here.
00:19:09:07 - 00:19:29:19
Zenae
I'm like, Oh, great there's also poison ivy risks. So what the hell do I do? Poison Ivy? Bears? River? Death? I'm just like, I don't know. And we're waiting. We're standing there for a while, waiting for lunch. While we're waiting there. We're realizing things. This is irrelevant compared to what happened. But I realized I lost my Fitbit. My Fitbit must have fallen out of the Dimple Rock.
00:19:30:19 - 00:19:56:03
Zenae
Last time I remembered, it was 2:04 p.m.. That was before the Dimple Rock. So we're standing there waiting for our lunch. I'm like, after everything that happened, I really don't give a shit about eating lunch. I just want to go back and down some whiskey, numb. what happened today. Like, I just couldn't... All I wanted was whiskey. So we're waiting for our lunch wihich what felt like a deserted island because they said that there was no trails.
00:19:56:03 - 00:20:17:06
Zenae
Poison ivy nearby. Bears. The only way out was the river, so we had to wait. No one told us what was going on after that Dimple rock, my crew, we were all pretty, you know, frightened, rightfully so. But being around people and how I process things, it takes me hours to a few days, a few seconds. It really depends.
00:20:17:06 - 00:20:36:11
Zenae
Like, I just have, like, delayed processing sometimes when it comes to stress, fear and like certain situations and bad news. So we're standing there and I don't want people seeing me freaking out. I almost died, you know, I didn't want that. So I do what Zenae does best. I made some sort of stupid, sarcastic joke. I mean, I love humor.
00:20:36:11 - 00:20:57:00
Zenae
I love comedy. I love it, and I enjoy dark humor. So I don't know why I was thinking like Gilligan's Island meets Lord of the Flies. We're waiting for a while. So I made a stupid joke like, All right, who are we sacrificing, who's being sacrificed first so we can eat some food? And somebody there, they're like, Well, what about the fish?
00:20:57:00 - 00:21:23:07
Zenae
And, I'm like, oh yeah, I should have said that one first instead of resorting to cannibalism, but it was just a joke. And I'm like, Oh man, with all the danger and stuff in the world, I'm probably scaring these people. And I told them how I'm not a violent person or anything like that and such. It was just a dumb joke. Anyway, so one guy said, Oh no, that woman survived, because we were all looking for this woman and we didn't know where she was.
00:21:23:07 - 00:21:47:00
Zenae
And so he's like, Yeah, I think I saw her walking and I think she's okay and just separated from her party. Okay. So I'm like, all right, nobody's missing. Then some people were like, "No, I think something is wrong. It wouldn't take this long for lunch." I'm like, yeah. First, I'm thinking maybe they're rescuing her, bringing her back on the food raft. I thought I heard. All sorts of things like this is what happens when people don't talk to each other.
00:21:47:01 - 00:22:11:16
Zenae
Nobody says anything directly. They start assuming things and we have no idea what's going on. I'm like, Wait, this is odd. I'm like, all of our guides aren't here. Something must have happened, you know, we didn't know how serious it was. And one guy comes back and all of a sudden he's doing a head count. And this, mind you, after the incident, this is the first time we're getting a head count.
00:22:11:23 - 00:22:33:11
Zenae
And he's like, remember your numbers because we'll call it again later. All right. I was number 26. They never called it a second time. They did a head count once. I think like 2 hours later, maybe even two and a half hours later, we're on like a three hour tour. You know, Gilligan's Island type music starts coming in.
00:22:34:01 - 00:22:54:20
Zenae
There's a park ranger. Oh, sure, it was. There might have been a different exhibit anyway. So all of a sudden, all the guides and safety crew came in rolling in on their kayaks. Whatever was happening just didn't look good. We were able to get on a raft with a guide and everybody kept saying, Oh, the toughest part is over.
00:22:54:20 - 00:23:14:18
Zenae
It's light. it's gonna be easy. Dimple rock was the hardest. Okay? And so we got on this raft with the guide and it was actually nice, like he was telling us what to do, when to row, when to row, forward went row backwards, when to take a break from rowing, when to lean and when to jump, you know, jump on the raft to get the rock out.
00:23:14:19 - 00:23:36:11
Zenae
He knew exactly what we should be doing. And for the first time, I started to feel slightly safe, even though for Whitewater Adventurers, you're supposed to scream out, I feel safe. I never screamed that because I never felt safe, period. You know, I can go into details, how like, a Beetle started attacking me and then we had to kill the beetle.
00:23:36:15 - 00:24:02:07
Zenae
And it's like but that's, that's a different story. But as we're on this raft, when we heard we only had to take the river to get back to the mainland, and we heard that there's no trails. Nobody informed us about a person. But on the raft, eventually we heard an ambulance drive by and we discovered that a woman was rescued and her family left with her to go to the hospital.
00:24:02:08 - 00:24:24:12
Zenae
No further details then that was revealed. I think in our minds, we just assume and hope for the best because it's like, oh, like I couldn't have been on the same rock where somebody died. Like, that can't happen. Death doesn't happen on family fun adventures. No, that can't happen. this is the easy one. This is you know but that was Julie Moore.
00:24:24:12 - 00:24:45:09
Zenae
We finished the rapid trail with the guide and going through certain rapids how we with five of us at this point almost flipped a few times. I knew we all knew we would have flipped three or four more times. So imagine if we never got the guide in our raft. If that never happened, we could have died again.
00:24:45:09 - 00:25:18:01
Zenae
Like had another near-death experience or something else, or even just like more and more traumatized because that was horrific what happened and finally, finally, we made it to land. I mean, you get stressed out in life, you get depressed, you say, so many things of darkness, not wanting to see people, not wanting to go somewhere and not wanting to talk to people, not wanting to do this, not wanting to message anybody, not wanting to communicate with anyone, not wanting to reach out.
00:25:18:06 - 00:25:41:06
Zenae
Just to stay in darkness, wishing you weren't born this, that, and the other thing. But when you face basically your death or something near death, you get this new appreciation for life. You're so happy that you're alive. You're so happy., you get to get a message from any of your friends again. You're so happy that you get to hear somebody complain about nonsense.
00:25:41:18 - 00:26:07:12
Zenae
You're so happy that you get to hear a family member's voice again. You're so happy that you're alive, that you are alive, and that you realize that your life is worth something and it's some sort of appreciation that you never really felt before that when I saw Metallica the next day on August 14th in Pittsburgh, when James Hetfield said, How does it feel to be alive?
00:26:07:12 - 00:26:35:02
Zenae
I almost bawled out in tears because it felt amazing. It feels amazing to be here that life should never be taken for granted. Our life can be over. After a family trip in the blink of an eye, anything. And I say like, my anxiety is so up, I respond to things differently. I'm going through a process here. It's very traumatic and PTSD.
00:26:35:02 - 00:27:01:09
Zenae
I was washing my hands and looking at the water and started getting afraid of the sink. I had a glass of water and I thought I just got reminded of drinking the river water. PTSD and trauma. It is real. And there's only like so much stuff that you can share on Facebook or Instagram or something and like, you know, attention spans or not or lack of or willing to watch it or caring about it because oh, there's another post from her or radatdada.
00:27:01:10 - 00:27:24:05
Zenae
Or, I unfollowed you because you said this or I took a screenshot of that and I did that, you know, like stupid nonsense that really people just need to get the hell over it. But it's just so much to interpret that, like I thought, to make this video, this audio recording, just to explain. I mean, it was just terrifying, terrifying! I wouldn't want anybody to go through this.
00:27:24:09 - 00:27:43:12
Zenae
So what happened is I realized Dimple rock. I did my research after the fact. As a journalist, I should know better to do your research first. But I trusted the people. Easy. Okay. Guides. I didn't think anything of it. I never done this in my life. And Dimple Rock is one of the top five most dangerous rapids in the country.
00:27:43:12 - 00:28:07:07
Zenae
It may be on the easy, low trail, but the undercut and how it works like a vacuum, is what makes it dangerous. It makes it so dangerous. It has killed over 23 people in 40 years. And my guess is it's probably killed even more than that. And it's injured probably a hell of a lot more. I can guarantee I am not a statistic here.
00:28:07:07 - 00:28:30:22
Zenae
They did not report my experience and my friends experience and the other people in my crew's experience. And who knows how many other people's experiences that did not get reported that you just continue going on the raft like nothing happened. You didn't almost die. It's one thing if you're an adventurer person that you've had this experience and you love, you know, you get a thrill from it.
00:28:30:22 - 00:28:57:00
Zenae
But it's another thing if you're just some person just trying this for the first time and having no experience. Completely different! Different mindsets. It was scary. It was so scary. And I read over the years people wanted to get rid of Dimple rock, but, you know, you don't want to and I agree with this. You don't want to get rid, change nature over nature for the sake of a sport and it could do more damage than good.
00:28:57:00 - 00:29:23:08
Zenae
So all I'm asking, all I want is have danger signs. Be honest to your people. Remember, they never told us there were trails. There are ways to avoid the Dimple rock by taking your raft and going around it on the trail to avoid it. There are ways to avoid Dimple rock. And they did not clarify that. There should be warning signs.
00:29:23:09 - 00:29:49:04
Zenae
There was no warning signs. There should be some sort of plan to bring safety for people like me who are inexperienced., that just wanted to know what it's about. To say that you did it. Have fun. There should be more guides offering in the raft of people there should have been a warning to say, okay, for these type of rafts, minimum four people, minimum five, six, whatever, have an even weight.
00:29:49:04 - 00:30:09:03
Zenae
They should not let people with a party of three take that raft. They should not have lied to say it is easier with three people. Meanwhile, I read that if you go on a raft on Dimple Rock, it's actually more difficult than on a kayak or canoe. Nobody told us this. We didn't know any of this. We didn't know there were ways to avoid it.
00:30:09:05 - 00:30:29:08
Zenae
They lied to us. Why did they lie? To save time? Well, that time could have saved somebody's life. Julie Moore's life and PTSD for who knows how many other people got scarred from this, over the years. This isn't like roller coaster at Six Flags. This is something that does kill people. And yes, rollercoasters kill people, too. But you get what I mean.
00:30:29:08 - 00:30:51:13
Zenae
There's no seatbelts or anything. There is nothing. It's just you and the river. You and nature and you can die, people die from it. And I could have been dead and I read. In 2019, a man got stuck at Dimple Rock because his foot got stuck. And I just I was in horror when I read that because what if when I decided to stand up, my foot got stuck and I continued to drown?
00:30:51:23 - 00:31:12:10
Zenae
What if that couple wasn't there and I had to take that rope and I drowned? What if I just went directly in undercut and couldn't get out? I don't know how. I don't know how I'm alive. And I'm actually I'm happy to be alive. But I have this added fear. I'm afraid of going on the plane. I'm afraid of drinking water.
00:31:12:10 - 00:31:37:22
Zenae
I'm afraid of walking. I'm like any instant something can take your life and I'm just so happy that no matter what in my life, of all the negative thoughts I've had of myself and I'm happy that I'm alive and here, I want to try to prevent this from happening. I want to try to save somebody's life. I mean, I'm talking about families go down these rapids. Families! Little kids. Children.
00:31:38:03 - 00:31:57:01
Zenae
If a child went under that would be it, a child didn't know any better, that's it. And they don't do anything about it. The life vest didn't save me. It brought me under because of the vacuum. I saved myself for deciding to stand like an idiot. But I just stood in a lucky spot and I don't know how I did that.
00:31:57:04 - 00:32:26:21
Zenae
It is dangerous and I'm sure if this video goes anywhere, people will be like, Oh, you're such a moron. Or like, you know, the Internet hate. That kind of goes on from people because that's what they do now. But like, I want this to be safe for people. It's not safe. I'm not saying to close the rapids like I'm for adventurers and people doing these type of athletics, but like have warnings. Don't tell people it's a class two when it's really a class three or four.
00:32:26:21 - 00:32:53:18
Zenae
Don't tell people, oh, it's just a little tricky when it's known as the most dangerous rapid in Pennsylvania and top five most dangerous rapid period. I think I read somewhere where despite the upper level of the river with, you know, levels, class fives and stuff, it's the undercut and the vacuum from Dimple Rock that makes it terrifying, that makes it dangerous.
00:32:53:23 - 00:33:15:06
Zenae
And I get it. I get the thrill and wanting to face danger and do it again and again. I get it. But there's children and older people that want to do this that won't be so lucky. Swimmers that aren't strong and people is going there to face their fears of drowning. But like all it takes is the simple rock to cut it out.
00:33:15:08 - 00:33:31:04
Zenae
We need to save lives over businesses. My heart goes out to Julie Moore's family. I'm really sorry. I'm sorry this happened to you. And to know that all of this could have been avoided if they were honest. Unbelievable. And that's Dimple Rock.
Transcript 02: Death At Dimple Rock | Zenae’s Bruises:
00:00:05:01 - 00:00:26:08
Zenae
So they said, go on your back so you can float up. So I went when the raft tipped over from Dimple Rock went on my back and I remember just going underwater. There was no floating. Now, I don't know if it was two inches, two feet. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. I was drowning. That was the first thing like, oh, wow, I'm drowning.
00:00:26:08 - 00:00:55:14
Zenae
I'm not floating like this. That was my first thought. And it's so hard. Everything just, like, happened so fast. My knee banged into a rock like, bam, banged into it. And I don't know if I scraped my thigh or something or twisted my leg in there. I have no idea what happened. All I know is I ended up standing on this flat rock and I didn't die.
00:00:56:00 - 00:01:16:11
Zenae
That is it. Injuries now, I have bruises on my knee is in like four different colors. My thigh hurts when I sleep. I have bruises. I have a bruise on both arms. I took a photo of the left arm. I found a little one on my right arm. I don't know if I have a rash from something on my wrist.
00:01:16:15 - 00:01:38:05
Zenae
I've been limping. I had a really liquify myself before Metallica to pretend I was okay. Anybody who knows me, Zenae will see Metallica with, like, broken bones, broken everything. I mean, I did 70K with a broken finger. When I really want to go somewhere, I go regardless of injuries and I suffer through the pain and I don't really cry like that.
00:01:38:18 - 00:02:03:17
Zenae
I just go through it. This was like a whole different experience and kind of like shaken afterwards. But yeah, I've been limping a bit. I know the first few nights have been like really painful on my right leg. And then I remember the first night I felt like I was back on the boat and I was afraid of sleeping, just going through the motions of the aftermath of a traumatic experience.
00:02:03:17 - 00:02:21:14
Zenae
It's all I can say, but a PTSD from looking at water, you know, what sucks is, I just went through my cat's death in May where I had a little bit PTSD, like hearing my phone ring or taking Ghost (my dog) to the doggy hotel. I'm still afraid of taking my pets to the vet. I lost two cats in one year and now I almost lost my own life.
00:02:21:14 - 00:02:47:23
Zenae
And the year is not even over yet. So I don't even know. I don't know. It's just like I don't know what's going to happen next? And I'm terrified. I am terrified. And also grateful to be here. Every day is a blessing every day, regardless of what faith you believe in, every day, every moment is a blessing to be here, to be alive, never, ever take life for granted, be happy that you are here.
00:02:47:23 - 00:02:53:10
Zenae
Reach out to the people that you care for. Don't take life for granted.
Transcript 03: Death At Dimple Rock |Clearing Up Misinformation:
00:00:05:02 - 00:00:31:05
Zenae
Hello. It's Zenae again. I figured to do a second video because new information is coming to light. This video is more technical. There might be some repetition of my story of what happened, but we're just going to go to the basics. Whitewater Adventures, on the website. First thing. It's listed as, like your rafting options, everything apparently is more clear on the site.
00:00:31:06 - 00:01:04:17
Zenae
The site says rafting for all skill levels. So lower class 3, that's what it says in parentheses, is for new and experienced rafters. So new would be us plus experienced. And with the 70 plus people that were there, I can guarantee that most people were new or and there were also some children there. Middle is class 1 to 2, which is perfect for families, and then upper is class 4 to 5 is perfect for extreme adventurers.
00:01:05:00 - 00:01:29:08
Zenae
Now it's, you know, advertising as one of the best. Great ratings. Wonderful! Buy me! you know, join us! Type of thing. A few things that I noticed is I looked up the lower Yough or however you pronounce it, and they gave the quick details. It said, it changed from just 3 to class of rapids is from 2 to 4.
00:01:29:16 - 00:02:03:15
Zenae
Duration is 4 hours. The minimum age is 12+. Distance is 7.5 miles. Then it says raft and inflatable kayak rentals. On the lower Yough. “Create your own adventures with Whitewater Adventurers, rentals on the lower Yough. Choose from 4 to 6 person rafts.” Do you understand what they're saying? Let me just read that again. “Create your own adventure with Whitewater Adventurers rentals on the lower Yough. Choose from 4 to 6 person rafts.” What months does it run? April through October.
00:02:03:16 - 00:02:23:16
Zenae
The fact this lists 4 to 6 person rafts is what's getting me here the most, because… And the classes. it’s saying class 2 to 4. But if you look at the map over here.. So, on the map that I have here, of the Ohiopyle on the lower Yough river, it starts with the Entrance Rapid class 3 to 4.
00:02:23:18 - 00:02:53:23
Zenae
Then the Cucumber rapid is 3 to 4. Eddy Turn rapid is class three. Camel and Walrus Rapid is class three. Dartmouth Rapid is class three. Railroad Rapid is class 3 - 4. Dimple Rapid is class 3 to 4 with a warning that says danger. Dimple Rock is an entrapment hazard. Swimmers rapid is class 3 to 4. Double Hydraulics is class 3 to 4 River’s End Class 3 to 4.
00:02:53:23 - 00:03:22:21
Zenae
Schoolhouse Rapid is class 3. Bottle of wine is class 3. Maze or Stewarton in this class 3. Bruner Run Rapid is class 3. And zero Rapids are class two. And it says another danger by River’s End is to avoid wall and snaggletooth rocks. And then danger as an unguided boater on a class 3 to 4 river. You are accepting responsibility for your own safety.
00:03:23:03 - 00:03:47:16
Zenae
You must be familiar with this river whitewater, rope, boating and self-rescue skills. Yeah, we weren't. Nobody was. And most of the people were beginners. One person couldn't swim who was afraid of drowning, for crying out loud. And so with us only having three people there, no warning, and the guide telling us it's easier and with it advertise with the class three.
00:03:48:04 - 00:04:21:14
Zenae