Safety is our priority.
Paddling in a new country is a significant undertaking. We strive to provide an experience that prioritizes the safety and well-being of our guests.
Trip Structure, Planning, and Decision Making
We plan our trips around the safety of all participants. Long before the trip begins, we meet individually with each guest to understand their paddling experience, expectations, fitness level, emergency contacts, and medical conditions. Our trips are as personalized as possible; we meet our guests where they are and create groups with similar paddling and energy levels.
We run our trips with two guides and a maximum of six guests on our road trips. Our trips are designed to be flexible. We start out on friendlier sections and progress to the more challenging sections at the end of the trip, allowing us to properly identify any skills we need to improve upon and evaluate the group. Most rivers we visit have various sections with different levels of difficulty and we decide in real time what we paddle. This adaptability allows us to run a safe trip even in the event that there are differing skill or fitness levels in the group.
We recognize that a guided trip can be an opportunity for our guests to progress their paddling in a way that they may not be able to at home. We work to create an environment where this can happen in a controlled and deliberate way should the ambition exist.
Preparation
Our greatest asset in running a safe trip is our decision-making, but any river carries a certain level of unpredictability.
We provide our guests with up-to-date kayaks, paddles, and any other necessary equipment they need to reduce the chances of equipment failure creating a dangerous situation.
As guides, we are always equipped with 80-hour Wilderness First Responder training, first-aid kits, and satellite and radio communication. We have designated evacuation points on every river we paddle.
Experience
Collectively, we have made hundreds of successful rescues in our personal and professional paddling careers across diverse rivers, situations, and locations. Every one of these experiences plays an important role in the decision-making and rescue skills we apply on our trips.