On each whitewater trip we provide on the Savegre River, our professional guides give a safety talk, as well as demonstrations on the commands utilized during your trip on the river.
While this post won’t go into all of the details of the safety talk, we will go through some of the basic rafting commands that you’ll hear from our professional guides while on the Savegre River. Before we get into the details of these commands, please note that the only time you STOP paddling one of these commands is when your guide says STOP. Ok? This is important.
FORWARD or ‘ADELANTE’:
While this command may seem totally obvious, it’s important to note some elements here. Firstly, when your rafting guide says ‘forward!’ it means you need to paddle now. Hesitation doesn’t help your guide or fellow rafters. When any command is stated by your guide, its go time, now! The other thing to note is that this command heavily relies upon the rafters seated in the front of the raft. It’s very important to watch your fellow rafters to keep a good rhythm and be in sync while on the river.
Those rafters in the front determine the pace at which the whole raft paddles. Make sure whoever is sitting across from you has the same pace of stroke, otherwise, the raft can turn in a circle. For those of you in the back of the raft, focus on aligning your timing with those in front of you. If for some reason this timing gets off, you’ll likely notice it very quickly; paddles tend to hit each other when the timing is off.
BACK or ‘ATRAS’:
Very similar to the forward command, the BACK command requires very good timing on all of those involved. This is a team activity, and the forward and back commands quickly shine through if there is someone not paying attention. When everyone on the raft is tuned in, it’s a great feeling and very noticeable in how well your raft will be able to navigate the rapids.
GET DOWN!
When you hear this on the river, you know there is a nice rapid coming! In all seriousness, you need to pay attention to all of these commands. This one in particular needs to be responded to as quickly as possible. This command means that you put your butt on the floor of the raft and tuck yourself in the raft. A VERY important part of this command is timing, just like the other commands… this comes with a particular nuance; you need to be very aware of where your paddle is.
While in the safety talk this topic is covered at length, what is important to know in this particular post is KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE END OF THE PADDLE AT ALL TIMES. This is a very big deal. Sometimes, beginning rafters will hear this command and forget about their paddle. Remember that you have a hard paddle and the end of it is not friendly to yourself or your fellow rafters. You need to maintain control of it at all times, including when you GET DOWN inside the raft. That means keep your hand on the end of the paddle the whole time.
LEFT BACK, RIGHT BACK PADDLE
While at first this command can be confusing, you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. This type of command is to enable your boat to turn to the left or right. If your guide says left back, that means the right side needs to paddle forward. This enables your raft to more quickly turn in either direction. This is frequently used on the Savegre River in the more technical sections where the guide needs more assistance in steering the boat.
HIGH SIDE!
All of these commands for whitewater rafting are very important. This particular command is a big deal. If for some reason a raft starts riding up the side of a boulder on the river, you’ll need to listen to your guide and perform the high side command. This can happen for many reasons, the point is to know what to do.
The scenario: let’s say your going down the river and for whatever reason a boulder comes between the raft and your down river path. The raft turns sideways, or perpendicular to the boulder and becomes stuck. It then starts to ‘climb’ up the boulder. Now if it goes to high, it’s likely the raft will flip over, something we want to avoid. So, what are you options? Your guide will yell, ‘HIGH SIDE!’ which means to go to the higher side of the raft.
One side of the raft will be much higher from the water than the other. If you’re on the side that is close to the water, you simply move your body weight up towards the side that’s higher up on the boulder or obstacle that the raft is stuck on. That’s it! Of course there are many details of particular situations that your guide will help explain on the river, the basics are as outlined here.
With these basic commands and an awareness of what is going on, you’ll have a great time rafting the Río Savegre with us here in Costa Rica. Our professionally certified guides love to share the river with our guests, and river education is a big part of what we do on every single trip.
