Your own personal whitewater trainer!
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Our instructors are skilled, talented, patient, and available to teach you whatever you want, however you want, wherever you want (almost). Need a day to get more comfortable in the river? We can do that. Need someone to help you fine-tune your rusty skills? No problem. Want someone to help you get to the next level of whitewater? We can help.
We have been training guides and teaching people how to row for over 50 years and we have access to a wide spectrum of rivers offering a full range of difficulty and challenge. If you’re just getting started, we can spend the day on fun, straightforward Class II rapids and riffles and work on your confidence. If you’re looking to bump up your abilities, we can find some Class IV puzzles and help you hone your skills. If your Grand Canyon permit finally came through and you want to refresh everything and ask someone a million questions about everything you’re worried about, we’ll spend the day with you and get you ready. We can work with you for one day in the middle of the week or we can meet with you every Saturday for a month. We can provide everything you need or you can learn in your own gear (if it’s good). We will take what you want to accomplish and flavor it with what we know works and put together a custom training package for you.
Just call.
Description of rivers:
The two primary rivers for private instruction are the South Fork of the American and the Tuolumne. Between them, we can find pretty much every level of whitewater needed. The South Fork is great for beginners and offers easy access and a lot of flexibility with timing. The Tuolumne is California’s premier wilderness river and has an almost endless supply of tricky, challenging, fickle rapids that are great for building skills and going from pretty good to pretty strong. We can also offer one-on-one instruction in concert with our regular commercial trips on the Rogue, Salmon, and others. If you want to learn how to row a big, heavy, gear boat and manage a multi-day, wilderness river trip, (without just recklessly going for it), let us know and we can find an option that will help you get more experience (without getting more experiences).
Who is this for?
Our private instruction is custom training; there aren’t any cookie cutters. We can design a program that is ideal for people who are afraid of the river and want the undivided attention of trained whitewater professional to help them get more comfortable with moving water and we can put something together for people who have taught themselves how to row but don’t really know if they’re doing it right. Some students are experienced and want to see a new river with someone who is familiar with it and others have a private trip coming up and just want to spend a day with a “real guide” and ask questions. The river is our home; we’re out there every day all summer and we want to teach you our tricks and share our experience with you so that you can be as comfortable on the river as we are.
More information:
Obviously, there aren’t any specific details for this; we’re going to create your instruction from scratch. The only next step is to call us (209-962-7873) or send us an e-mail. Then it’ll be fun.
My day on the Tuolumne was everything I wanted and needed. I was especially thankful during those top 20 miles on the Middle Fork; I was so glad to have spent a day practicing that kind of rowing before I went. Thank you!