2009 Professional Guide School
The cracker jack staff at ECHO World HQ has put together an incredible program for aspiring river guides. We will kick off with Professional Guide School May 9-15 in the Columbia River Gorge. We will stay at a base camp near Hood River and each day we'll spend time teaching techniques that are essential to a river guide's success. We will explore different rivers in the area including the Hood and Klickitat. Evenings at base camp will include river recipes and camping tips. You will finish this course with wealth of knowledge necessary to all professional river guides' repertoires.
Once you've gotten your feet wet with guide school (and we mean this literally), it will be time to show off your skillz at the 26th Annual Clackamas River Festival May 16-18! This event, hosted by the Northwest Rafter's Association, is a must for river rats. There are sprints, slaloms, relays and dutch oven cook-offs. You can row cats, rafts, IK's or hardshells. This is a great event and will add a whole lotta fun to your river education.
And wait, there's more! After you've picked up your pro guide skillz and competed with genuine river rats at the Clackamas River Fest, we have scheduled a Whitewater Rescue Technician (WRT) course May 19-21! The course will be offered by our friends at Wet Planet Whitewater on the White Salmon River in Washington. This is required training to work for most outfitters, including ECHO. You will learn great rescue techniques and boating safety in this 3-day course.
If you can make it through almost two weeks chalk full of river training with no tears, we'll consider you well on your way to becoming a Professional River Guide!
