When Not to Ride a Homemade Raft

So, you just watched an episode of Survivor and you suddenly feel like building a raft. You break off a few branches, tie them together with string... or wool or duck-tape or whatever seems like a good idea but probably isn't, and now you have a raft.

Great. Now you decide to test it out. So, when exactly is it a good idea to test it out:

• Shallow calm waters? Great
• Fairly deep, but Calm waters (and you're able to swim back to land)? Okay 
• Small waves? Ah... okay, but remember it is a homemade raft that you built
• Mild waves? Hmm... maybe not
• Through a storm (maybe not like the storm in The Perfect Storm... but still a storm), because your friend said it sounds like fun... and knows that you're a terrible swimmer and he (or she) was on the High School swim team? Ah... get a new friend.