Private Boaters Guide School

This guide school is ideal for aspiring private whitewater rafters. Do you have your own equipment and want to hone your skills? Are you thinking about buying a raft and taking friends and family whitewater rafting? We can help with that.

This course is an introduction to whitewater rafting. During the whitewater rafting course, you will be given the opportunity to learn the following skills:

• Ability to paddle guide the South Fork of the American River
• Basic Swiftwater Rescue techniques
• Basic concepts of hydrology
• Basic knowledge of the river environment
• Basics of what it takes to be a private whitewater rafting guide
• How to adequately prepare equipment for a river rafting trip
• How to manage the basic logistics of a river rafting trip

In general, we keep our instructor to student ratio low. Usually it is one instructor to four students per raft. Often it is less. Your instructors act as personal coaches and whitewater lifeguards. We sit in the passenger seat and let you drive.

Students often excel in some areas and struggle in others but this should not discourage you. This workshop will be taught in an inclusive manner so all students will be encouraged to excel and challenge themselves no matter where they are in their learning process. Whitewater rafting is a challenging activity and requires consistent practice. This guide school is not the end of learning—it is just the beginning!

All of our guide schools are non-refundable and non-transferrable. Our courses sell out and we don’t want anyone to miss an opportunity to learn with us. If you make the commitment to join a course, please plan on attending.

This course's curriculum is not designed for aspiring commercial raft guides. For professional guide school information, please check out our professional guide school page here.

Check out our FAQ’s for commonly asked questions about our private boaters guide school, or call, text, or email to speak to an expert!