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.

When communications breakdown in the outdoors, it can have serious consequences. In non-emergency situations, such as during outdoor recreational activities, communication breakdowns can cause delays, misunderstandings, and poor teamwork. These breakdowns can also lead to injuries and emergency situations. For example, less experienced rafters can misunderstand the difficulty of a rapid thus causing them to downplay the possible consequences of an accident.

Gatekeeping in outdoor sports refers to the act of controlling or limiting access to certain activities, locations, or equipment based on arbitrary and often discriminatory criteria, such as one's physical appearance, perceived skill level, or membership in a particular group. This can take the form of exclusionary attitudes and behaviors among more experienced or elite members of a community, who may actively discourage or belittle those who are new to an activity, or who do not conform to traditional norms or stereotypes.

Stress can limit situational awareness by causing a person to become focused on their own stressors and concerns, rather than on the situation at hand. This can lead to a cognitive narrowing, where the individual is less able to parse data into information and respond to relevant information. Additionally, stress can also lead to physical symptoms such as increased heart rate and sweating, which can make it more difficult for a person to focus and make decisions.

Gear fear, also known as equipment phobia, is a common problem among outdoor enthusiasts. It refers to the fear or anxiety associated with using certain gear or equipment, particularly in activities such as rafting, kayaking, climbing, backpacking, and camping. This fear can manifest in many different ways, from mild discomfort to complete avoidance of certain activities.