Strengthening Skills, Building Confidence: How Backcountry Squatters Helped Me Become a Better Guide

My name is Jamilah, and I have been a raft guide for 3 summers on the Royal Gorge section of the Arkansas River in Colorado. I was so grateful to receive a scholarship to complete a swift water rescue course through backcountry squatters. This course has been one I’ve wanted to take since I became a raft guide 3 years ago. I’ve looked up to all of the senior guides with swift water experience because of their vast knowledge about the river and how to handle potentially dangerous situations. Gaining this knowledge and experience means so much to me as I can continue to take people down the river with confidence.

During one of my last weeks as a river guide on the Arkansas River for this season, I was able to take a swift water rescue course because of the scholarship awarded to me by backcountry squatters and my rafting company’s facilitation of this course. Going into the class, I was feeling a bit anxious because I was not sure exactly what was going to be expected of me, and to be honest, I was a little nervous that I was not going to be able to successfully complete the course. I’m not sure why I was feeling that way because I have been a raft guide for 3 years now, I had a pretty good basis of knowledge on swift water rescue techniques, and I was going to be in this class with fellow guides at my company. However, my instructor, John Burke, did an excellent job easing my anxieties even before the course started. He sent out information about what we needed to prepare for the course which made the course feel accessible.

The class was an integration of both on-land and in-water learning mainly focused on how to get people and watercrafts out of the water or away from dangerous features in unideal situations. We learned how to rig a z drag, how to use a rescue pdf in different scenarios, how to tie several different knots and the appropriate applications of each knot, how to work together with a team to perform a rescue, and plenty more helpful tools to employ on the river. Above all, this course emphasized crisis prevention as the best course of action. In other words, Burke made it clear that it is paramount that we are all well prepared for any water adventures that we are going on in regards to the equipment we have, knowledge of the people we are going with, and a familiarity with what is going to be available and unavailable in the environment we are getting into.

One of my biggest takeaways from this course is that skills like swift water rescue and other outdoor rescue techniques are meant to be practiced frequently, and having this knowledge is not the same as applying it to a situation where people are actually in danger. Another takeaway I got from this course was realizing that I am a very capable and knowledgeable outdoor guide. I understand why I was feeling so anxious before the start of the course, but I wish there was more of a voice in my head validating my skills to give me a little bit more confidence to take up space during the course. Overall, this was an awesome experience, and I feel like a better river guide because of it.

best wishes,
k-dog

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