Many members have recently been approached by Mr. Danilo Barmaz, President of the Italian Rafting Federation (an IRF member), with an invitation to abandon the IRF and join him in creating another international rafting federation.

The invitation included documents containing defamatory and false statements about the IRF, and very misleading statements that suggest that he will be able to accomplish far more than the IRF has done over the last 20 years  — particularly the goal of putting rafting in the Olympic Games.

Below is the response from the Czech Rafting Federation which falls under the Union of Boaters of the Czech Republic (SVOCR).

SVOCR letter to Mr. Danilo Barmaz

The IRF BOD will be responding shortly as well.

Rather than work with the IRF to reach this goal, Mr. Barmaz sadly seeks to divide us, going completely against the basic concept of unity, and completely ignoring a large number of the IRF Bylaws that he has agreed to follow.

We urge all members to do proper due diligence before signing up to anything.