Ropes and Signals
Tuesday, February 16th at 6:30 pm PST
The LCCC’s online River Safety series starts with a discussion on ropes and signals with an all-star cast of current and former Chattooga river guides. See event details below.
Shore-based safety is a key part of keeping swimmers from going under rocks on the beautiful but dangerous Chattooga river. Guides on this river can flip more rafts and rope in more swimmers in a season than most people do in a lifetime. It’s not because these guides are unskilled; in fact it is quite the opposite.
Tune in to hear how this crew of Chattooga guides takes rafting customers down a free-flowing river with blind drops and dangerous runouts. This peek into their systems could influence how you treat certain drops on the rivers you run routinely. To prepare for this talk, consider:
Watching this Kayak Fails Best of 2020 Carnage video.
The clips are short. You may need to turn the sound off, and to pause it or back up a few times to see what’s going on. At 0:19 someone is trying to rope in a swimmer. What did they do wrong? Pay special attention every time you see someone throwing or receiving a rope.
Reading the American Whitewater Safety Code.
This is the best summary of reasonable safety practices for whitewater paddlers. Pay special attention to the river signals. Paddlers use a lot of signals and they vary from place to place, but this set is universal. Know them.
Meet the Panel
Hobbit Hawes has been addicted to whitewater ever since he first crashed through a two-foot-tall wave train in an aluminum canoe on the West river in Jamaica, Vermont in 1983. Since then he's raft guided in the Southeast and California, taught rafting, kayaking and canoeing for NOLS and other organizations, and enjoyed many wilderness adventures including four trips down the Grand Canyon. He might not huck his meat off the harum-scarum class V gnar-gnar anymore, but considers most any day on any river in any craft to be a day well spent. He was married in the Asheville Mardi Gras parade where he and his wife were king and queen. When not mucking about in boats, he may be found playing “way too much” chess or working as a general contractor at Round Door Contracting.
Peter Benedict kayaked for the first time on the Chattooga River. His early experiences amongst the rhododendrons and mountain laurels have shaped his decisions and his life. Peter has chased rivers across the country, representing the U.S. in the 1997 World's on the Ottawa. He loves his work with high school students at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, sharing his love of paddling and wild places. He pushes the kids to embrace all aspects of paddling including self-support, looping in holes, and driving wavehoppers and slalom boats. Each discipline provides challenges that help them grow. Peter teaches young paddlers to be the kind of people you want with you on the water—with their heads on a swivel, making good decisions, and ready to pick up the pieces when things go sideways.
Jim Wallace started boating with the Explorer Scouts at the age of fourteen, and took a job guiding on the Chattooga during college. He considers the Chattooga his home river, his Mama river and teacher. One of his favorite memories is paddling Section Four at five feet (high water) blessed with dear friends, clean lines, and a bald eagle soaring overhead at the end. Jim has guided and led trips on the New, Gauley, Ocoee and Pigeon Rivers in the east, and Clear Creek in Colorado. He has degrees in Parks & Recreation Management and Sports Medicine, and works as a (state and nationally certified) athletic trainer, doing acute care and injury rehabilitation.
Bill Hester's river life also started with the Boyscouts and expanded to include marathon and downriver canoe racing. He found a home at the Nantahala Outdoor Center at age twenty, working as a guide, instructor, manager, and eventually heading the Adventure Travel Department (his dream job). He is grateful for the friends and mentors he found there. He led and taught in the southeast and in Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Southeast Asia until 2001. Now a physical education teacher and coach, he has spent the last three years in Guangzhou China. His two adult children are guides on the Chattooga now, and on a recent high water Chattooga Section Four trip he worked with five members of the next generation, and is proud of their skill and professionalism.
April McEwan calls the Chattooga River a wise mother and friend. She is grateful for her time guiding and safety boating, when the Chattooga taught her about communication, teamwork, risk management, and that pride goes before a beating. These lessons have guided her life on and off the water. She worked as a safety kayaker on the class V Rangitata River in New Zealand, paddled five hundred miles of the Rio Maranon from the Andes to the jungle, and won a World Championship surf kayaking for the US East Surf Kayak Team. April has a background in water resources and currently is a project manager on dam removal projects for American Rivers in Washington and Oregon.
Darryl Knudsen’s mission is to elevate rivers on the world agenda to shape economic, energy, and conservation policy. He studied International Business and Human Rights at Columbia University, then worked as a Chattooga raft guide, safety boater and kayak instructor and explored rivers all over the US and in Central America. Since he got behind a desk he has held leadership roles within the corporate, NGO, and government sectors for twenty years. In his current position as Executive Director of International Rivers, he links global public policy to its local impacts, drives systems-change strategies, and advances action on human rights, water, climate change, and energy.
About the River Safety Series
Guides and instructors are routinely trained on safety, but regular recreational paddlers can get years into their paddling life without any training. These talks are for you: regular paddlers.
The River Safety Series is organized and hosted by Teresa Gryder, the LCCC’s Safety Chair, who has made it her mission to help paddlers manage the risks of being on the water. Guides, instructors and subject matter experts will share their vast knowledge and experience gained over decades on the river. Instead of learning the hard way, join us to hear their insights and stories, and let useful tips sink in so that you might lower your risks and prevent injuries and fatalities on the river.
FREE and open to the public, you do not need to be an LCCC member to participate in the online River Safety series. Join us via Zoom on alternating Tuesday nights, starting Tuesday, February 16 at 6:30 pm PST and running through April 13.