The rumble in the Thai jungle

As I took my seat on  Finnair flight from Helsinki bound for Bangkok,Thailand I had to take a reality check to see if this was really happening. In the matter of 2 short weeks and a few emails I was heading to Thailand to run the first ever IRF workshop deep in the jungle close to Chiang Mai.

Ex-kayak freestyle world champion Eric Southwick had invited me to run an IRF guide and trip leader workshop for his newly established company 8adventures in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. 

Rafting operations on the Mae Tang river in Chiang Mai only started around 20 years ago but the area now has around 14 companies. 8adventures is the leading company in the area, offering a professional operation to the hoards of tourists wanting to experience the jungle.

Eric had kindly picked me up from Chiang Mai airport and given me the lowdown on the job ahead. My first priority was sleep. After a good night’s sleep at the 8adventures camp it was time to crack on and start the 5 day workshop. To assess the river do a check out run so I joined onto a trip and was pleasantly surprised by 2 things

• The Mae tang was super high due to recent rain. We had a solid 2km section of class 4-5 rapids to test us on all week.

• The team at 8adventures were slick. Eric and his co-owners Sak & Oat had a tight operation. This was a pleasant surprise.

Eric demonstrating the whitewater swimming position.

I had planned the workshop over 5 days to allow for extra teaching. None of the guides had ever participated in any type of structured teaching course. I also had to allow for language barriers so the plan was to take things nice and slowly and move at a speed that suited the students on the course. The 5 days were mapped out in the following way.

• Days 1 &2 were dedicated to personal rafting & kayaking skills. I needed to spend time observing each guide running the river. This worked out really well as we had commercial trips every morning so I got to see the guides with real customers.

• 

• Day 3 was set aside to focus on whitewater rescue skills & safety kayak skills such as dealing with panicked swimmers & unconscious swimmers.

  

  Keep your swimmers in a place where you can help them most & remember to smile.

  

  Eric & Sak take it all in. It's not every day I get to teach a former 2x World Champion & a Thai national champion about kayaking.

  

  A safety kayaker dealing with an unconscious swimmer.

  

  Same bank entrapment drill

  

  Live bait exercise 

  

  gotya 

  

  Swim test

  

  2 point raft tether exercise 

  

  Throwbag skills test 

  

  Rescue harness operation demonstrated by using a V Lower.

• Day 4 was used for trip leader assessments.

  

  A flipped raft stuck in a boily eddy was used in one of the TL scenarios. (Can you spot the surprise underneath the raft that awaits the rescue team?)

  

  One of the safety kayakers dealing with a stranded customer on the TL scenario.

  

  Mock body entrapment scenarios

• The days were long as they are on all workshops. We started early in the morning and finished late in the evening. The Thai guides really took an interest in the whitewater rescue aspect of the workshop. They had lots of gear and wanted to know how to use it. Now was the time to introduce them to my favourite mnemonic that I find myself using time and time again on workshops 
  
  
  KIS, KIS: Keep it safe, Keep it simple 
  The Nature of the Mae Tang river really keeps the guides on their toes. The river is full of Bamboo strainers mixed in with some fatal sieves. I needed to ensure that the guides really took their time and use the self, team, victim principle to ensure their own safety not only during the workshop simulated rescues but also when on the river operating commercial trips.

This picture sends shivers down my spine just looking at it.

The Locals like to build as close to the river as possible.

The extra time spent developing the rescue skills of the guides & safety kayakers really helped out during the trip leader scenario tests. Not only had the guides progressed in their understanding of rescue skills and principles. Their team work had improved dramatically. Having skilled safety kayakers really made the life of the trip leaders a lot easier during the test.

To sum things up. Thailand now has its first IRF certified guides, safety kayakers & trip leaders. The bonus is the fact they all work daily together for the same company. We shared an inspiring week together. New friends were made and the IRF now has active guides in Thailand.

The Participants of the first ever International Rafting Federation workshop in Thailand. 

I boarded my flight home tired and happy. As I sat down I realized it would all be starting again in 7 days time. This time I would not be in the river deep in the jungle but in the high mountains of the Indian Himalaya on the mighty Zanskar river.

Happy paddling, Mark

Rafting the Casbah

Stepping out off at Marrakesh airport I was hit by the warm air. A pleasant change to the blast chilled air of my Arctic winter residence. I was in Morocco to run my first IRF workshop of the season for Berber Rafting Adventures in the Atlas Mountains.

Our drive into The Atlas mountains 

After a short taxi transfer to our hotel the group met for the first time. We consisted of 9 raft guides from the UK ,France & the Netherlands. Over dinner we discussed the groups expectations for the coming week.

This workshop was going to be a residential workshop, we were going to be together non stop for the next week. The perfect ice breaking exercise for a group of raft guides was to have a few beers and chill out.

We all awoke the next morning and boarded Yann's van for the 6 hr drive to the Atlas mountains. We were all instantly taken back with how beautiful Morocco was most of all it was good to feel the sun on our skin.

Our arrival to the camp after a long hot dusty day on the road was an eventful one. Ed, one of the guides slipped climbing down from the roof of the van. The first real life scenario of the course had begun. I now had to clean and stitch his foot up. With some help from James and Nell we manged to get away with using sutures and managed to use lots of steri strips.

Eds foot 48 hours after his wee slip

After an amazing dinner of Lamb tangine I retired to bed for the night in preparation of our first day on the water in the morning.

Early morning coffee hit

After a light breakfast we packed up and drove up the valley to the commercial rafting start point for the Melloul river. Yann our host had informed me that due to a late spring  the rivers were still really high due to the snow still melting. The effect this had on the Melloul was great!  The river was flowing really fast with no eddys with lots and lots of trees in the river making this a great test piece for the guides to prove themselves on.

The high water flows in the area were going to make the course entertaining 

We kicked the day off with safety talks. Many of the guides started of a little nervous but soon managed to relax. Our french contingent were a little skeptical about having to give a safety talk in English but they all managed to get through with no problems.
The British based guides on the course all gave really good informative safety talks in the searing 30 C degree heat with all of their kit on.
My main observation from all of the safety talk was  re occurring, the guides needed to "KEEP IT SIMPLE".
Our rafting guests do not need to be blinded by technical jargon. Later that evening we did a "safety talk in silence" workshop where each of the guides had to give sections of the safety talk with out talking and by using actions only; a great leaning tool.

We cooled of by putting on the Melloul. The Melloul is a short intense trip with plenty of things for the guides to concentrate on narrow canyons separated by tree infested flat sections. I needed to spend 30mins with each guide taking control of the raft. It took each of the guides a few minutes to adjust to the speed of the water and the trees but after this they were all fine. I got to see some really good examples of client care and good raft handling techniques.

The Melloul: a perfect warm up run.

We stopped at the confluence with the Ahansal river where our camp was conveniently situated. A quick lunch stop and 5 minutes warming up in the sun before we headed back up for the 2nd run in the afternoon. All of the guides now noticed that they really had to keep on top of there water intake so we stocked up for the afternoon run. The afternoon run went really well, the guides were starting to settle into there new surroundings. We ended the practical side of the day at the take out looking at how to get a line across the river. I could see that the boys really wanted to get stuck into the rescue & rope work aspects of the course.

Our evening session consisted of a short anchor and knot trying session which was to come in handy for the days to come.

Day 2 started with 2 more runs of the Melloul. During these runs we started to explore the role of the safety kayaker on a raft trip. The kayakers practiced exiting their kayaks into the raft and taking command of the raft mid rapid which was something they had never done before. We practiced towing the rafts along with multiple techniques of taking charge a guide-less raft from the position of a safety kayaker.

Oli taking charge of the raft by vocally guiding the raft down a rapid from his kayak

We ended the 2nd day with the practical rope work assessment. Each of the guides needed to set up a functional 3;1 mechanical advantage system inside 5 minutes. This was a great example of how we need to spend some time investing in the correct rescue equipment. We discussed the benefits of a 5m length of tubular webbing along with good carabineers & pulleys. My advice to any guides is to practice practice when it comes to rope work. All of the guides passed and I wanted to give out bonus points as they were all rigging their systems in the dark!

Day 3 kicked off with a short session on packing for a multiday trip. For the next 2 days we were going to operate the workshop on a multiday trip down the Ahansal river.

                                       

This set up had a very Nepalese influence to it. 

We eventually set off down the river. The high water levels gave us continuous rapids with lots of  testing technical rapids. This really allowed the guides to sit back and enjoy their surroundings. Without knowing they started to relax and just guide naturally which was a pleasure to watch. Our lunch stop was set at the bottom of a class 4 rapid.

                                               

We continued rafting after lunch and entered a spectacular canyon just before we hit our camp for the night. Once at out camp we decided to finish off the day with the throw bag & swim  test. Each guide had to make 2 throws inside 20 seconds, one of the throws had to be a recoil throw. After a few practice throws the boys were on fire. The swim has to be a challenging swim which all of the team agreed it was as the water was snow melt water and freezing cold.

After the guides had all completed their swim and throw bag test it was time to set up camp for the night. Make a fire, sit back and enjoy our surroundings.

During dinner we discussed the role of a trip leader on a commercial river trip. The next day was to be the trip leader assessments. Each of the trip leader candidates were to be given 1 hour to take control of a scenario on the river. It was up to me to create a true to life scenario that could happen on a commercial trip. This could include panicked midstream stranded swimmers, multiple swimmers from a flipped rafts, entrapment and treatment of unconscious casualties. The list could go on and on. 

Each of the trip leaders were really put to the test with some life like scenarios. The guides all loved the chance at a bit of play acting and we got to see some true Oscar award winning performances.

The trip leaders coped very well with the demanding scenarios put down in front of them. The relentless sun and hot weather made life a little more interesting. 

We paddled down the last sections of the Ahansal through the spectacular canyon relaxing in the shade. 

The Ahansal flows in to a dammed lake. We paddled the flat water out into the lake where the water went from a muddy brown color to a deep turquoise. We boarded the ferry with the rafts for the 10km journey across the lake to our waiting vehicle. We had to take advantage of this turquoise water at the takeout by finishing the day off with the flip drill test. Despite having 4 action packed days the guides were still managing to make their flip drills inside 1 minute which was great.

The final day of the course allowed us to complete the last remaining aspects of the safety kayak session and also this involved dealing with multiple swimmers, panicked swimmers, & unconscious swimmers. We also looked at some live bait rescues. After lunch we decided to have an open session where the guides could take a more in depth look  at any subjects they still wanted explore. Being typical guides they wanted to geek out on rope work especially mechanical advantage. We had a short session on the land before finishing the session off with building a high line across the river. The local took the chance to get a cheeky ride across the river. Our high-line now became known as the Berber ferry!

Over the week a few consistent themes came out of the course and they were.

• Keep it as simple as possible.
• Keep it safe always. 
• Actions speak louder than words.(demonstrate with actions where possible) 
• Practice ropework & safety talks as much as possible. 
• Spend a little cash to have the correct equipment for the job. 
• Think professional & act professional. 

Overall it was a great week and we look forward to hopefully running another course in Morocco next year. 

Congratulation & many thanks to 

Yann Coppen @ Berber rafting adventures,James, Ed Patryk,Hugo,Simon,Damien,Oli,Nell 

Happy paddling 

Mark

Kali Gandaki with Paddle Nepal

Travelling around the world with a raft guide has definitely taken me down a few rivers in Nepal, Iceland, Finland and New Zealand. Oh the carnage stories, don't we just love them. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy rafting but mainly because of the chilled atmosphere on the overnight trips, beautiful beaches and so on. If I happen to be in a funny state of mind and decide to go rafting, for me it definitely isn't about the big whitewater, continuous rapids and full-on action. (Mind you, I have done the epic Karnali river trip in the far western Nepal but I have never been so sick, nervous and excited at the same time!)

So it happened that some time ago I found myself by the put in of Kali Gandaki river. I finally joined a 3 day trip with Paddle Nepal. To be honest, I was supposed to go last year already but I chickened out. This year I definitely wanted to go, just for the great  experience (did I mention those beaches and camping?) and to see the boys working on the river. Never mind the rapids! How wrong was I..

Boys started to load the bus who knows at what time in the morning  and we took off around 7.30. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us to the put in but with a tea stop on the way and a comfortable new bus it was no problem. 

We all tried to pitch in with packing, pumping and loading the rafts and preparing lunch. Boys put together awesome lunch by the riverside and we were either cooling off in the river or under the tarp. 

Finally it was time to get kitted off! How about that face..Yeah, doesn't look I am too convinced yet about the trip. 

Team GoPro! Some good footage they caught with their cameras. 

Here is Mark styling through his safety talk and demonstration.

I might be biased here but I do like his safety talks! At the end of everybody's got it I hope as actions speak louder than words. 

We obviously had safety kayakers with us even though most of us managed to stay inside the two rafts. Dinesh, Suk and Nanu took good care of us with Rajip and Mark guiding the rafts!  

On the first day we paddled for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Our trip was in early October and due to the late monsoon the water level was still quite high. You get almost straight into the action as the biggest commercially rafted rapid Little Brother is waiting for you after only about 15 mins. of paddling! There I was with no choice but to decide to go through with what I had started. We stopped to scout the rapid even though I didn't even want to have a look. Mark convinced me it was going to be fine and I trusted him. It might not look like that on the picture above! 

Believe it or not I was actually the first person to give an excited shout in the middle of the rapid because it was so much fun! The picture above proves it. 

After the Little Brother comes of course nasty looking Big Brother which we portaged around. It went relatively smooth as boys did a great team effort to move the raft across and over the rocks with our minimal help. 

Kali Gandaki, one of the holiest rivers in Nepal, begins its journey from the Tibetan border at the Nhubine Himal Glacier where it flows southwest through the Mustang region and then south cutting through one of the deepest gorges in the world between Dhaulagiri (8167 m) and Annapurna I (8091 m). It is one of the major rivers in Nepal and and a left bank tributary of the Ganges in India. 
The Kali Gandaki gorge is a part of very popular trekking route, Annapurna Circuit. 

The gorge and its deep walls are truly an amazing sight to admire from the raft. Looking at the bridge in the picture above even I definitely felt more comfortable in the raft than I would be on the bridge! 

We were off the river after 3 pm and this beautiful campsite was to be ours for the next night. You can see the bridge on the background of this photo still, we were told it would be an hours walk at least to reach it from the camp. Frisbee was played, tents and shelters were put up, kitchen was set up and in no time we had hot drinks and snacks waiting for us. 

Here are Dinesh and Suk preparing dinner like true river chefs. 

Simple candle bags illuminated our first nights camp to give a relaxing feeling after the first exciting day on the river. I slept soundly for 9 hours under the tarp listening to the river (the sound of the crickets was deafening at times though). The Good Morning rapid that can be seen on the picture was waiting for us the first thing in the next morning. 

This gray langur was the only one we spotted by the river this time but entire troops are commonly seen on the trips. 

Seems like this bunch was having good time and it was only the second morning. Anybody out there who used to watch TV series Lost? :)

No really, they were a great group of people to raft with for 3 days. 

Besides company safety kayakers we also had some experienced kayakers joining us from Scotland, Germany and Austria. 

Nanu, always smiling and alert should there be any swimmers. 

Like here..Anyone see the hand of God? 

No safety kayaker needed here though. The crew was on it straight away as he went for a swim in the middle of the rapid. Looks like Rajip is a little hesitant though..:)

Upon scouting this rapid we decided to run two lines as the main line had a high chance of some OBE - Outer Boat Experiences! Those of us who wanted to stay in the raft simply avoided the line and the adrenaline seekers went for it. 

This was all that us spectators got, no OBE, just some legs showing off. 

Here is Jange, the man behind the oars in the gear boat. He was making sure our food and other supplies got safely down the river. Mark said if I was to be too nervous during the trip I could jump on the gear boat with Jange but by the second day I had already forgotten this option as I was having too much on the paddle raft. 

Here is Rajip's team, screaming for fun or catching flies? 

After a full day of paddling and lunch between we finally arrived to second night's camp. The same procedures followed as the first evening and soon we were enjoying hot drinks with noodle soup this time.  

On the second camp Ghita, a lady from the local village, comes down to the beach to sell us thirsty rafters cold beers, rum and Coca Colas. She had some chocolate as well but the time I realized this it was already too late. Definitely felt like I would have deserved it. 

The second day we still had some tasty rapids to tackle before the flat section and the paddle out to the dam. By now I was excitedly looking forward to the rapids and was rather disappointed when they ended. 

In my opinion time went way too fast and it would have been fun stay longer even on the flat section of the river as we had lots of games and swimming going on. River still being at medium high level after the monsoon we were soon at the take out. 

Everybody had a chance to try kayaking also during the last hour. 

After couple of hours paddling in the morning and we were off the river carrying equipment to the bus, eating lunch and getting ready for one more adventure: the 5 hours class 5 bus drive back to Pokhara. Want to thank the Paddle Nepal and their team for making it possible for me to join this adventure! After the nervous start I can honestly say I enjoyed myself and would do it again. 

All photo credits belong to Tommy Giordano! 

Miia