What does a raft guide look like to you? Guides often grapple with this as every year we have a new crop of fresh guides coming in who are eager to learn. New guides may not understand the rules and mindset of what is required of them. Similarly senior guides may have trouble articulating what it is to be a guide and what is required of new boaters. Every year we get questions from new guides on how to prepare for a profession where we are seeing to the needs of folks who have paid the companies, we work for to help them explore a facet of the world that they may have very little practical kno ..read more

One of the biggest questions we get is what is the best raft? The answer is really simple…it’s the boat that you like. Just like anything in the outdoors there’s an ideal tool for every job and a raft is no different. If you’re taking 6 kids to school, you’re not going to take a race car. All rafts aren’t equal. Some boats are designed for high performance r2ing and some are fantastic for rowing a multiday trip with the family. A lot of folks expect me to tell them what “THE” raft is. The only one that you need to do everything you want. Well after years of trying every boat I can get my hands ..read more

Safety is a difficult topic in the outdoor adventure community, on the one hand we want our friends and family to return home at the end of the trip. On the other hand, we are engaged in an inherently risky activity. So, the big question is where is the middle ground between safety and acceptance of an increased risk profile? That is a discussion that every paddler needs to weigh with their risk profile, but at what point do we need to speak up for safety? Risk tolerance To get a good sense of a person’s risk tolerance you’re going to want to evaluate their risk profile. The risk profile is a ..read more

In the river world and in rescue scenarios boaters talk a lot about Mechanical Advantage with the venerable z-rig being the standard that we’ve been taught since the olden days when the first boaters rode dinosaurs to run their shuttles. These days there is a lot of debate on the best systems and equipment to use out there. The debate is going to rage for eternity in boating and for good reason. Standards improve as we develop best practices each year. There are a few things we want to examine for newer boaters though before we wade into those choppy waters. A lot of beginners ask us what Mech ..read more

Communication is super critical for success in high stress situations, we all know that, but somewhere along the way the idea that 2 people shouldn’t talk while they’re rafting came along and it won’t go away. This whole idea sometimes called Zen boating creates a big problem for our community and we need to seriously reevaluate why we do this. The biggest problem is that when you have 2 people in a boat and you’re just “doing it together” may seem like a nice egalitarian way to get down the river, but you don’t have anyone to break the stalemate when you have opposite opinions on what to do ..read more

As Team Paddler Kailee Hutchison calls it “the white wall” and hitting it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, when you hit the whitewall, it takes whatever you were just doing and fragments it in your memory. There are a variety of psychological phenomenon at work here, but at the end of the day it is a stress response that affects your memory. When you’re charging hard it alters the way you perceive your surroundings and creates adrenaline fueled gaps in your memory. Memory Inconsistency When boaters are confronted with a stressful or perceived life-threatening situations, like raf ..read more

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