Daredevil dam-riding 'a bit of fun' - witness

A man who witnessed a daredevil riding a tube down the flooded Lower Nihotupu Dam at the weekend said he would have joined in if his family wasn't present.

Darryl Brown said there was a group of three "young fellas", and one of them was lowering himself down the steep concrete side to the rushing water below.

The person, dressed in a black helmet, orange shirt and blue shorts, reached the water, took a tube from around his shoulders, and threw himself on top of it before being quickly carried away by the torrent of water.

Brown said the climb down the wall might be dangerous, but aside from that the ride down the floodwaters was fairly safe.

"It just goes into a settlement pond, goes into a lake sort of thing . . . no turbines, anything like that that were going to mince him up."

Brown thought two people might have gone down, or the first person had gone down twice, but he had not been paying enough attention.

"I wanted to join them, I really did . . . if I wasn't there with my family I would have joined them for sure.

"We're all young once . . . it's a bit of fun."

He thought it would be "a bit over the top" for charges to be potentially laid in the case.

"In that case, you know, I should be locked up."

A video of the dam rider has been posted online by West Auckland Updates and has been viewed nearly 60,000 times.