The term “rafting” comes from raft, which in English means inflatable raft.
For a long time, people have used floating craft (rafts or wooden canoes) to go down rivers, whether for conquest, feeding themselves, or exploration.
In the 1840s, an expedition was carried out aboard a rubber raft on a tributary of the Missouri. The raft was then improved and used for military purposes to transport men and equipment down rivers.
In the middle of the 20th century, rafting began to emerge as a commercial activity in the form of excursions on the Salmon and Colorado rivers in the United States.
Rafting then became increasingly popular around the world and appeared in France in the 1980s. The appearance of kayaking – with white-water descents – at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972 also helped make other practices such as rafting better known. The first rafting descents in France took place on the Isère and Ubaye rivers.
Since then, rafting has seen notable progress in terms of equipment, and practitioners have continued to explore areas that would otherwise be inaccessible except by river.