Our trainees rock!  As of the beginning of June, the trainee raft guides have completed 8 weekends of guide training.  They began by having their trainer, Double D (Eddicar Ferguson III), guide them down the river a handful of times describing rapids and teaching them the basics of reading water.  Because that’s not usually enough for them to learn anything, we usually dump them into the river a bunch, too.

The next step is the trainees start steering the boat in flat water and practice turning to the right and to the left.  They slowly began taking turns guiding through the small rapids with Double D guiding the class 3-5 rapids.  He  would have them pull over above the big rapids and walk down to scout the whitewater.  He would describe water features and have them watch other rafts come through.  They spent time ferrying the raft from river bank to river bank, which is a skill raft guides need to learn in order to, um, rescue trainees.

So the day came when Double D bit the bullet and handed the guide paddle over for the class 4 and class 5 rapids.  This is like giving your car keys to a six year old and riding shotgun.  Things were ruff for the first couple trips after that.  I heard  a story of the boat flipping in the first wave of Double Z rapid, they climbed on the bottom, hit the next big wave (the reactionary wave) and the raft flipped again righting itself.  Don’t see that all too often!

So they progressed and gained more boat control and enough so that Double D cut them loose.  They have spent the last 2 weekends “Turkey Boating,” just trainees in the raft, no Double D.  That way they can practice on each other and crash & learn in a way.  No one is there to correct them before they make a mistake.  Well, the river is, which is nice- natural consequences rule!  This is also when some major bonding takes place as they gain more trust in one another, and start to earn ours.

Sam, Lewis, Matt & Chad are the four finalists in the 2009 “Who’s going to be the next Songer Raft Guide?”  In the weeks to follow we will  have them riding in commercial boats checking out the guest interaction, getting folks to do what we need them to do, and practicing how to remain calm under pressure.

I’ll keep you posted as the season continues for our finalists.  Each will need to complete a “Check Out Run” with a senior guide only observing.  And each first-year guide will need to continually train as the water levels drop in July and August.  It takes years to season a raft guide to just the right ripeness (but soaking them in water for long periods of time helps).