PGO Guide Training

Coloma, California

Wow! what an intense week! And totally worth it!  I was so tired by the end of the loooonnnng rafting week I think I slept for 2 days straight when I got home. (Seriously, they were a blur!) I thought about how I can share all of my 10 days worth of experience and quite frankly, the entry would probably never get posted. There is so much to share and just so little time as I begrudgingly found out. So, a glimpse of my training seems very appropriate.

Well, here it is folks, a glimpse of my PGO white water rafting  basic training....

This is my most memorable run and my biggest highlight (out of the many) of my whole experience. I had to put all the pictures the photographer captured in (you'll see why...) Just posting a few pictures here and there didn't seem to do the experience justice. This is my run on a rapid called Hospital Bar in the Gorge run of the South Fork of the American River. :-D If you scroll quickly through the pictures, I won't be offended, I understand. This is mainly for my purposes.

Here I am guiding this boat at the beginning of this rapid calling a, "FORWARD!"

Here is Dustin, sitting next to me,  leaning over to tell me that I just took the very conservative route, meaning I pretty much missed the rapid. (whoops!)

I still wanted to try and get in it though...

And everyone was still smiling.

Until now. I'm not sure what Danny, a fellow guide-ling, was thinking in this moment but I'm pretty sure he saw what was coming....

Notice how my mom and Jake are leaning in together? Yeah. I'm pretty sure they were bracing for impact. Meanwhile Jeremy seems to be having a grand 'ole time...

This rock, my friends, is called Catcher's Mitt. And it caught a hold of my boat pretty good. Catcher's Mitt is known to catch many a-boat for those who take it conservative (whether intentional or not). If you notice Dustin's (back left of boat) hand gesture he is calling the command, "HIGH-SIDE!" We call a High-side to keep the boat from flipping. That means everyone goes to the "High" side of the Boat.

And here I am copying Dustin's command. You learn from the master right?

My family are just enjoying the experience.

Especially Sam. I am so glad they were enjoying themselves.

Here is Dustin coaching me on what possible ways we can get off Catcher's Mitt and which ways to try first. I'm smiling here cause I have no clue! It was one of those moments where you could just laugh or cry. I chose to laugh. Whatever humor there is in the situation helped me to move into problem-solving mode. Crying would just cause me to shut-down and ball up.

So, under the coaching of Dustin, I try a turn (as pictured above). That didn't work. (meanwhile everyone was laughing and cracking jokes.) Then I tried moving people to the back to get the weight off the rock. As I had people doing that, our gracious photographer who took these pictures said, "May I offer a suggestion?" Dustin, "Yeah." Photographer, "Don't move to the back. Stay up front." So we all begin to move to the front of the boat.....

After getting up there,  Dustin says, "Its like taking a family photo!" (and here it is in the above picture.) :-) There couldn't have been a more odd yet perfect moment while perched on a rock in Class III waters. That's what I call enjoying the moment no matter what the situation is.

Now it was time to get off Catcher's Mitt.

"Back to positions!.... if you can."

Notice Danny on the right side of the picture. Yeah, he's half in and half out of the boat and asking for help.

I kept calling out, "Somebody help Danny!" and then decided I should help Danny too cause I thought we were in the clear... Ha! Little did I know....

BAM!!! The boat flips on its side.

All I was thinking at this point was Self Preservation. Earlier in the week we practiced flip drills in an Eddy (slower/still water). I knew I had a hard time pulling myself into the boat so if this boat completely flipped over, I wanted to make sure I was at least in a good spot to find something to grab to climb on top of the bottom.

I didn't know Dustin held on to that rock. I'm pretty sure that what kept us from completely flipping.

And there goes the majority of my crew. This is what we address in our safety talk "what to do in the event when you are no longer a paddler and now a swimmer...."

Check out Jeremy (white T-shirt). I love his expression! I enlarged the picture so you can see it a little better.

And we land "Butter-Side up." Phew!

Most of my crew got to have an "Out-of-Boat-Experience." (Thankfully it wasn't all of my crew.)

Honestly, I think we all did great. Both the swimmers and the rescuers.

Poor Danny had just got into the boat (as shown in the previous pictures) and was now knocked back out. AND he had to pull himself in 'cause I was rescuing my mom first (which, by the way, was awesomely cool to do!). Sorry, Danny! I knew you could do it! :-D

They say that there are two types of guides, those who have flipped their boats and those who will. I have the privilege of having my first "half" flip documented. This day was the most memorable for me because I learned to laugh when things don't go as planned. Laughter diminished my fear. Fear had always (and still does a little to be honest) froze me in place and I wouldn't do anything when things get choppy. Dustin taught me that day to just do something in these moments. If I make a mistake, I can learn from it. Its not the end of the world. I have had a lot of cleaner runs (beautiful even) than this one. But this is the one that makes me smile the most. Its the one I learned the most on. And it was the most requested to see.