The answer to your question is yes, yes you are! It doesn’t matter how bad you think you might be, you are good enough. Rafting is a team sport and the crew will make each rafting trip unique, but paddling is not about being fit or strong, it is all about the togetherness of the crew. Some people worry they are not strong enough, sporty enough, or fast enough, but none of that matters if you listen to the guide and work as a team. Rafting is a good tool for team building because the success of the trip is related to how good a crew can work as a team.

          Everyone is good enough to go rafting and there are only two things that can keep you off the river, if you are intoxicated or pregnant. The minimum age to go rafting is 12 years old, and there is no age limit or weight limit. If you have any medical conditions, we ask you to tell the guide in advance. It won’t keep you from rafting, it will just make the raft guide aware of any precautions he or she might need to take and it can prevent future confusion and stress.

         Once at a rafting trip, a member of the crew fell of the boat and swam, he went one way down the river and his leg went the opposite way. The raft guide in charge started to freak out watching his costumer’s leg drift downstream while the costumer said to him: “Get my leg! Get my leg!” It would have been nice to know in advance that this costumer had a prosthetic leg. He would still go rafting, and probably wouldn’t have scared the raft guide as much. I had a girl told me half way down the river she was blind from one eye, that would have been nice to know from the beginning.

         Any medical conditions are best dealt with by talking about them before you go on the water. Now, if you don’t have any medical conditions and you still think you’re not good enough, come rafting and you’ll realize you are much better than you might take credit for. Every year we take hundreds of people down the river that explicitly state they aren’t good enough. It is beautiful to see how much their confidence grows throughout the trip and how much fun they have.

        Whether it’s the mom that is only rafting to please her children and ends up having the most fun; whether is the scary camper that came with a group, overcame his fear of the water and had a blast. Whether you are the guy that thinks he’s too out of shape for this and ends up enjoying the experience and surprising himself and his own views of what his body is capable of; or whether it is any other reason you might have that can make you think you are not good enough, get ready to surprise yourself! Because the answer to your question is yes, yes you are good enough to go rafting!

By: Laura de Leers