How to Do Paddle Signals for Whitewater Rafting

Video Transcript

"Paddle signals are an important way to communicate from the lead raft to the trip leader or from the trip leader back to the sweep. So coming up with some basic paddle signals are advantageous to your group. Some of the commonly recognized paddle signals would be a go, which is a paddle straight up, also you can do that with just your hand, which would be a hand straight up, this means go. Stop, which is an important paddle stroke to have means this, paddle across the river, you can also do without a paddle with your arms out like this, this means stop. With rafting you always point to the direction you want to go so, if you want to go to the river right, you paddle to the river right, if you want to head to the opposite direction turn your paddle to the opposite direction. You guys, have an emergency, they tend to spin the paddle in the air and use a whistle and blow the whistle to get people’s attention. This means you have an emergency situation on the river. Beyond those simple paddling commands you also can come up with your own group paddling commands so that you’re able to communicate with one another. This means I need a first aid kit, sort of commonly used throughout the area, there are other paddling commands like come, or slow down, that you can use, depending on how big a group you, uh, you’re out there with and how often you paddle together will pretty much determine how complicated your paddle signals will become. "