In rafting we often have a very short window to welcome beginners into the sport. Summer and early fall months are often warm and inviting enough to help people get started without too much equipment. Unfortunately, this means that we have a tendency to rush people into higher class whitewater or overload them with information, but for beginners we have to remember that we need to start slowly. If it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery and a beginner might only get 1000 hours for their first few seasons of boating thus it could take them 10 years to achieve mastery. In a normal job in the US ..read more

Rafter’s elbow often manifests as a combination of possible injuries from the repetitive stress of paddling. Lateral and medial epicondylitis more commonly called Tennis elbow and golfers elbow respectively, are conditions characterized by pain and inflammation in the tendons that attach to a bony bump on the outside and inside of the elbow. The repetitive motion of paddling can put stress on the tendons that attach to the lateral or medial epicondyle. How do I know if I have Rafter’s Elbow? Paddlers may experience pain and inflammation in the elbow, which can make it difficult to hold and con ..read more

No one wants to show up at a river front camp just to see the place filled with trash, rutty camping spots, and no vegetation providing shelter. There are a lot of elements of river culture that are constantly evolving and changing, but one question we keep asking is what is the culture we want to keep? Leave No Trace Principles are one of those cultural elements most boaters are likely to share and appreciate. The principles based on science and built on a shared respect for nature and each other. This respect, coupled with good judgment and awareness, will allow everyone to put the Principle ..read more

We never start out knowing much about a sport and the outdoors is no exception. It’s dirty, you get smelly, it’s generally uncomfortable, and the bugs are horrendous. Because of the adversity in the outdoors, we spend a lot of time creating rules for when, where, how, and why we do things. Don’t stand up in the river, don’t poop near a trail or river; do store food in a critter proof container, and hydrate often. These rules are there for our protection, comfort, and to set us up for success. Similarly important is a dizzying array of equipment to aid our success and provide that same level of ..read more

Did the chicken get undercooked or did someone just not wash their hands? Either way someone on the trip just exploded. No big deal, right? Sure, modern medicine has a lot of great options that can help us through this, but in a wilderness setting this gets tricky fast. In a wilderness setting, quarantine and management of a viral outbreak require a combination of individual and collective efforts to prevent the spread of disease. There are some serious issues to consider when you do have an illness outbreak. You may not know what disease someone has and the mechanism for transmission may b ..read more

We’ve all been on that trip where you’ve been dreaming of pulling a permit all winter since the lottery opened and that one perfect campsite has stuck in your mind for months. You’ve talked it up on the shuttle and all the way down river only to find that it is already occupied when you arrive. Great time for plan B. On some rivers it may be a required place, but on others there is more freedom. This situation can pop up on the most casual class I canoe trip all the way up to some serious multi day rafting trips. So, what do you look for in a riverfront campsite? When you choose a campsite alo ..read more

We can probably all agree that a head injury is a quick way to ruin a rafting trip. Nobody wants to end their trip in the back of an ambulance so, in November of 2022 we covered the Virginia Tech helmet study to get the spotlight on helmet safety. Since that study, there was a lot of discussion in rafting circles about the implications of that study and several questions have come up about helmet use in the whitewater world. What does the data say about injury rates and does the data paint a picture of potential injury requiring head protection? Unfortunately, data is pretty sparse for raftin ..read more

This one is for the raft guides in the group. Trips that suck sometimes happen, there are a variety of reasons for it, but it’s going to happen. Its not that it happens but what you do about it that makes the difference between a professional river guide and a mid-tier river trip. You need to have a system for how you recover the experience for your guests and you need a company that will have your back. Fortunately, most rafting outfitters are family affairs and they place a huge emphasis on people having a good time. But how do you as a guide respond to a bad river trip and how to you measu ..read more

Step 1 open the bag, step 2 put stuff in bag, step 3 close bag. Now we’re done, right? Not so fast my dude… Drybags are part of an important organizational system, so if you’re one of those people who just throws your laundry on the floor this might not be helpful, but you’re an adult with a dresser let’s look at how and why you want to look at drybags as a system. First, let’s talk about what a dry bag does well, it keeps your stuff mostly dry. Nothing is fully dry on the river because of a silly little physics concept called condensation. When you drop a sweaty top in a dry bag it creates a ..read more

In my early years of training raft guides I had a trainee take off his helmet in an eddy and proceed to take a huge gulp of river water. He did not seem to notice the dead calf in the eddy immediately upstream. The whole situation made me and another boat crew want to vomit in unison. The moral of the story, you never know what critter did what upstream of you. From that day on I have carried some sort of filter system. Filtration and water purification are two methods used to remove contaminants and impurities from water. While both processes can improve the quality of water, they work in dif ..read more