# Rafting Safety/Rowing Courses



## tango (Feb 1, 2006)

if you want to step up your rowing skills i'd reccomend taking a raft guide training course from a commercial outfitter. there's usually a pretty decent focus on safety & rescue, depending on the company. in my opinion, a lot of private rafters who have never worked as a commercial guide or gone through a formal training process have pretty weak skills. 

also, you should take a swiftwater rescue course.


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## Southern Skier (Dec 12, 2006)

*River guide school in Chile*

I believe there is a River Guide School Course coming up in Chile on the Rio Futaleufu:

http://www.exchile.com/swiftwaterrescuetraining.html

From what I hear it is intense and on the expensive side.


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## WhiteLightning (Apr 21, 2004)

Raft guide school is a great way to go. I would add, however, that many outfitters focus primarility on guiding paddle boats. The outfitter I work for, and the area we are in, 90% of trips are paddle boats, so we spend 90% of our time on that. I would suggest trying to find an outfitter the relies heavily on oar boat trips to do your training with, if that is what you are most interested in. 

FYI- I don't know firsthand what kind of whitewater skills they have, but I do know that fishing guide outfitters do zero paddle boats, but they still have to cover all of the state training requirements that whitewater guides have to take. You may be stuck learning about fishing holes, but at least up here in the central mountains, you would get fully oar-centric practice and training. 

Check out these guys: http://www.flyfishingoutfitters.net/raftschool.htm

Maybe your best bet would be to look for a whitewater company that also does flyfishing. They may have a more whitewater oriented oar training class. Most fishing guides try to avoid all the good stuff!


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## WhiteLightning (Apr 21, 2004)

Oh yes, and take Mike Mather's SWR class.


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## Turner (Oct 10, 2006)

The National Outdoor Leadership School has some classes

http://www.nols.edu/courses/locations/rockymtn/riverguidescourse.shtml

So does Outdoor Adventure River Specialists

http://www.oars.com/our_adventures/guideschool.html[/url]


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

*Oar Guiding*

Echo Canyon in Canon City does about half paddles and half oars in their training program circa 2000. I think some of the outfitters on Shoshone do a fair bit of oars as well. 

Ditto the advice to take a Swift Water Rescue class. 

If you don't do guide training you could always buy a guiding book and then devise river exercises to practice. Stuff like upstream and down stream ferries, punch-in and pull-in eddie catches, and every other skill you can come up with. Part of getting to be a better boater is looking for a really hard line in an easy rapid and trying to make it instead of taking the easy way every time. Try to get really close to a big rock but don't touch it, make cross river ferries using eddies behind rocks or behind hydraulics, take one of your main oars and rig it as a second spare and practice getting it out and in place in the shortest time possible. Flip you boat over and practice getting it flipped back over quickly and safely (flying oars are scary).


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## Osprey (May 26, 2006)

thanks for all the great responses so far and keep'em coming! I really appreciate it.

Sounds like maybe a guide course (like the one WL linked to) plus a swiftwater rescue course might be the way to go. I emailed Mathers for details on his trips. Those NOLS and OARS classes look cool but man the cost and time would be prohibitive.

As you can probably tell from my name fishing is actually most of what we partake in as well as family whitewater trips. I've done almost all of the Ark, Fork, and CO as far as whitewater goes as well as more flat fishing sections of various other rivers. I feel pretty solid in my rowing skills but know I could learn more and definitely need more hands on rescue skills. I've been through all the river rescue, guiding and technical whitewater books I can find but that can only get one so far. 

What we are really looking to do is to be ready to step up to some of the big stuff and long, multiday trips.

thanks again, great info


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## caverdan (Aug 27, 2004)

I put my son through the Buffalo Joe's guide training school..........We both thought thought he got quality training from them. River Runners has some quality training guides also.


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## Dallas Blaney (Mar 31, 2005)

It's great that you're looking to improve your skills but I would frankly warn you against going the guide school route. It sounds as if you already have some basic skills and probably aren't interested in enduring the hardships of raft guide training. As an alternative I would recommend joining a local paddle or rafting group. You could also hire an experienced guide to train you during the slow spring months. This state is chock full of guides with 10+ years experience and most are starving to death during the spring. Either of these approaches offer the benefit of allowing you to learn on your own gear , at your own pace, and on the rivers/sections that best match your specific interests. 

Best of luck!

PS - I know a few capable guides who might be willing to do that sort of work and you are welcome to drop me a line if you're interested.


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## rwhyman (May 23, 2005)

I think I have to agree with Dallas on this one. A couple of years ago, when I got into rafting, I contacted several of the companies in the Ark area about guide training. While they didn't say they wouldn't take me, when I told them I wasn't interested in being a guide, I just wanted the training, they didn't seem too excited. Again, mostly paddle training, not much on the oars.

From all reports, the Mike Mather course is the way to go. I'm just waiting to hear the dates for this year, so my son and I can take the course.
A couple of friends of mine took the SWR course from Bill Devorak (sp) last year and said that was also good.


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## WhiteLightning (Apr 21, 2004)

I would disagree, at least where I work. I trained with a senior finance executive from a major luxury hotel chain. He was there because he wanted to buy a raft, and take the family on trips. He was very happy with his experience, and it really met his objective. No one seemed to mind that he joined our training class. A lot of the good outfitters can't hire everyone at thier guide school, so they allow for open enrollment for whoever wants to come.

The only "guide school hardships" you should have would be maybe being cold, swimming whitewater, and having to carry boats, take your turn washing dishes, etc. Any reputable school will be about learning on the river (while having a good time) and not doing naked push-ups or something stupid like that. If so, you don't want to train there or work there anyways. Ours was professional, but laid back and fun too. Talk to some of the people who do the training. If they have good personalities and seem cool, then it should be fine.

If you are into fishing, maybe an oar cert class for fishing guides would get you some good practice with some experienced oarsmen. I guess it depends how much experience you already have.

Books for rescue are fine, but you really need to get out and practice. Mike's SWR class is great for that. FYI- he's also a great guide instructor and guides and teaches at our guide school at Lakota. 

Someone mentioned Shoshone... One of those Shoshone only outfitters in Glenwood pretty much only guides on stern frames down there. Might be worth looking into.


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## rwhyman (May 23, 2005)

Whitelightning, 
I'm glad to hear that your company, whoever that may be, welcomes all comers. I wasn't trying to bash anyone, just a general feeling I got. I can't even remember what companies I talked to, but they were in the Ark area, not Vail. As in most things, there are always exceptions, I was just not persistent enough to find them.


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## Andy H. (Oct 13, 2003)

One additional resource, that would probably be good to get and study whether you do raft guide training or not, would be Jeff Bennet's "The Complete Whitewater Rafter." This book has chapters on river-running history, river morphology and hydraulics, rowing techniques, river rescue, planning and executing multi-day trips, and a variety of other topics that should be of interest to the beginning rafter. The book's not the end-all, but it'll give you a good theoretical background for what you put into practice when you get your boat out this spring.

Get the miles under your belt and make the most of your rowing by taking the lines less traveled on your second time down a given stretch of river. Try rowing backwards or doing 360s going down straightforward wave trains, when you go down a Class II rapid, try catching eddies behind rocks and work your way down hopping from one eddy to another, and find little surf spots. For example, on Brown's you can surf the river L side of Toilet Bowl and do 360s until you get ticketed for loitering (and wash your boat out) above about 1500 cfs, and Canyon Doors is a fun surf at low levels. 

Most of all, have fun rowing that big inflatable toy you've got!

--AH

PS - White Lightening (Dave) worked for Lakota last season. For gear, you may be able to pick up used PFDs, paddles, wetsuits, booties, etc. cheap from Lakota or Timberline over in Minturn. Also check other outfitters for used gear.


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## buddy bear (Oct 6, 2006)

Far Flung Adventures has a raft school that is 100% oars, good school with good instructors. They also offer SWR classes as well.


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## buddy bear (Oct 6, 2006)

Far Flung Adventures- Taos, NM


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