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.

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?

In the river world and in rescue scenarios boaters talk a lot about Mechanical Advantage with the venerable z-rig being the standard that boaters have 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.

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.

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.

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. This can be a very frustrating situation for experienced boaters and guides when they bring some one new into the sport as someone may seem to be progressing more slowly than we would like. So how do we work within these constraints to help new paddlers progress?

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.

Leave No Trace Principles and practices promote respect and inclusion to all who spend time outdoors and in the natural world of which we are all a part. The Principles are 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 Principles into action on any outing.

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.

So, you pulled a permit for that dream section of river, maybe it’s THE Canyon, Middle Salmon, or just a rogue trip and you’ve been waiting for the perfect time of year to go. You know what will make that trip absolutely suck? Terrible sleeping accommodations. One of the best parts of multi day rafting trips is spending all of those amazing nights focused on the river you have been waiting so long to enjoy, so let’s talk about how to make it absolutely awesome!

Someone got sick on the trip. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 different ways and are used for different purposes.

Ever walk by your boating buddy and they have the curious scent lingering around them? You may shower regularly, but let’s face it if you’re reading this you’re probably a boater or super into the outdoors, so… No judgment, but there’s a good chance that you picked up some river funk. Even on clean equipment you might smell a mix of old shoes and popcorn with some slightly offensive earth tones mixed in. If that’s the case, some bacteria definitely has moved in.

If you are in an outdoor setting and someone requires urgent medical attention, the decision to perform a medical evacuation depends on several factors, including the patient's condition, the location, level of medical expertise, and available resources on scene. The goal of a medical evacuation is to provide timely and efficient transport of a patient to a medical facility, also known as definitive care, where they can receive the necessary treatment to improve their health and well-being.

Greater degrees of specificity help to understand a topic by breaking it down into smaller and more defined parts. By focusing on specific details, it becomes easier to comprehend the subject as a whole, because it provides a clearer picture of the relationships between different elements and how they fit together.

Helping a beginner get into a new sport can be a rewarding experience, both for the beginner and for you as a mentor. The outdoors can be an especially challenging environment to participate in a new sport. One of the biggest hurdles for beginners is lack of familiarity with the etiquette, equipment, and techniques. Think back to what you needed when you were a beginner in the outdoors and that will form a strong basis to help you guide others to find the joy you appreciate in the outdoors.