Advanced Packrafting Course Overview

Do you want to take your intermediate packrafting skills to the next level? Would you like to learn the skills you need to become an advanced boater, such as:

• ✔️Technical and complex strokes, how to expertly navigate eddies.
• ✔️How to read the river and make decisions as a group
• ✔️How to manage vertical drops and surf like a pro, among many other things.
  

If so, our Learn Advanced Packraft Paddling Skills Course can take you to the next level. Participants will hone their skills over three days on various rivers in Southwest Colorado. This course is based in Durango. It includes lunches. But you will be responsible for your own food and lodging. Two spots remain.

2023 Dates:

✓May 18-20: Advanced Packraft Paddling Skills Course. No-frills. Based in Durango. Four people max.
✓June 6-11: All inclusive, advanced paddling and expedition planning skills. Based at Scullbinder Ranch, Mancos. 8 people max.

Minimum Age: 18

Price: $1095

Course Includes

Three days skills training on various TBA rivers in Southwest Colorado + lunch and snacks. You’ll be responsible for finding meals outside of the course, as well as for lodging for the duration of the course. Scullbinder Ranch is not available for lodging that weekend, as we have another group.

Who This is For

This course is for people who aspire to become advanced packrafters, but who already have solid intermediate packrafting skills. This means you need good paddling, backcountry and swiftwater safety skills and that you are reasonably fit.

Instructor: Dan Thurber, Swiftwater Safety Instructor, Class V boater and all-around nice guy and awesome packraft teacher.

Course Details: The Animas River & Other TBA Rivers – What You Need to Know

What to pack: TBA

The goal of this paddling course is to advance your paddling, group management on the river, river reading and other river skills. We strive to give you the tools you need to do bigger and more exciting adventures on your own, and to turn any blue line or blob on a map into a trail.

This course will consist of three intensive days of skill learning and practice, including one overnight on a TBA river in the backcountry. However, you won’t be carrying all your equipment in the backcountry expedition style. Rather, you’ll camp in the National Forest, and do two day trips on a TBA river. Due to the ever-changing and inconsistent spring flows of Southwest Colorado, the river we run for the two days in the field will be announced the weeks before the course. Thus, we will constantly keep the team updated, and we will have a group discussion. We have various rivers to choose from.

Curriculum:

Advanced Paddling Skills

✓Technical and complex strokes
✓Dancing with the river: running big waves and laterals.
✓Managing vertical drops
✓Surfing
✓Paddling a expedition loaded boat in whitewater
✓How to read whitewater
✓Leave No Trace practices in the backcountry
✓Read & run style boating
✓Reading whitewater/hazards and avoiding them

Group Dynamics

✓Scouting and decision-making
✓Group selection
✓Downstream travel technique & communications for groups
✓Eddy hopping, traveling in groups. How to travel down a river safely by eddy hopping in groups
✓Clear communication: hand signals
✓Setting safety and choosing challenges: review, practice and implementation

Packraft Hacks

✓Basic optional roll instruction (not a focus of the course).
✓Backcountry repairs clinic
✓Storytelling

Prerequisites

1) Swiftwater rescue training.
2) You must have the following whitewater gear: a self bailing or decked packraft, a PFD (rescue PFDs preferred, but not necessary), drysuit (a wetsuit is not appropriate), helmet, paddle, neoprene cap and neoprene pogies/gloves, throw rope, whistle and river knife.
3) When stepping up to continuous class III and IV whitewater, quick self-rescue skills are crucial for safety. We suggest participants be able to fully self-rescue in flatwater five times in under two minutes. Your ability to self-rescue will factor into your decision-making when considering certain rapids. Paddling fitness often declines over the winter, but many swimming pools let you bring your cleaned packraft in for training.
4) You must be comfortable paddling into and out of eddies in a Class III rapid.
5) You are required to be confident in Class III rapids. We will ask you to identify the six hardest runs you have ever done and at what CFS the rivers were running approximately. If you did a Class III, but it was extremely low water, than it probably was no longer a Class III.
6)  **Not required**. But if you have video footage and can easily send us a video of you packrafting, that would help us better understand your skills in the water and help us figure out skills we can best help you with.
7) We ask that you participate in a minimum of 2 group Zoom meetings with all the instructors and participants prior to the course.

About The Animas River

Part of the intensive training for this course will take place on up to Class III+ on the Animas River, with a lot of time spent on the Animas City Kayak Play Park. We’ll do various sections of the Animas to and from the Play Park.
Length of Play Park: 1.25 miles
Length of Daily Adventures: 5 to 8 miles
Gradient: 30ft/mile
Difficulty: Class II+ III at 500-2000 CFS
Class III to IV 2,000 CFS and up.
High Water Flows: May-July
Flow: below 500cfs is low;
1,000-2,000cfs ideal for this course
Water Flow please see water levels

Cancellation Policy

Please note, due to the nature of this course and the expense of securing advanced course guides and getting advanced course insurance in advance, our cancellation policy for this course differs slightly from our standard Cancellation Policy. You will be charged a cancellation fee of 20% of the total cost in the event that you need to cancel your Advanced Paddling Skills course for any reason up until six weeks (42 days) before the course. Cancellations made greater than 21 days (three weeks) prior to a scheduled course will be refunded 50% of the agreed fee. Cancellations made within 21 days (three weeks) of the scheduled course will be refunded 25% of the agreed fee. We strongly recommend you purchase travel insurance, which will recover most of your fees due to cancellation. Please discuss with your insurance provider or look at Travel Guard. We are not affiliated with Travel Guard. For more information on rescheduling options, please review our Terms, Conditions & Cancellation Policy.

Photos & Videos

Photos from the 2022 Learn Advanced Packraft Paddling & Expedition Skills Course, by Andy Burr