Video: Whitewater Rafting Safety Tips

In this free whitewater rafting video tutorial an expert will discuss important safety tips and other things to keep in mind when rafting.

Video Transcript

Depending on the character of the river you're running will sort of determine the type of safety approach you take to running that rapid and also it'll sort of depend on the cruise you have and the raft guides you have too. A larger volume rapids where there a lot of volume running through the rapids, a lot of waves, but not so many rocks. Pining is really less of an issue. Flipping and having swimmers is more of a concern. On a rapid such as that, you're going to run safety on the fly. It's better to have your rafts close together so they're able to take care of one another and if they see swimmers from the raft in front of them or the raft behind them, they can react to those swimmers as they work their way down that rapid as a trip. Again, more experienced raft guides would be at the beginning of the trip and at the end of the trip to sort of sandwich the less experienced raft guides in the middle. Another way to run safety is to stop at the bottom of a rapid and setup safety for the less experienced guides as they come down. So you would send the trip leader down first. Have the trip leader pull over to one side of the river. The best place to set up for a throw rope and then signal the rest of the trip down. That way you're controlling the number of guests or number of crew members that you can have in the water any given time. If a boat flips, you only have one boat in the rapid at the time, so it gives your troop leader the ability to rescue those folks, get them to shore, and then setup two people for safety for the next raft down. Both systems work well. You just need to decide which one you want to do before you run the rapid. That way you're best prepared for any eventuality on the river.

Whitewater Rafting Safety Tips

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