Learn to Packraft: An Instructional Paddling Course for Beginners
Learn Packrafting Skills
Turn the blue lines on maps into trails and acquire the packrafting skills you need to embark on your own exciting adventures! Through this Packrafting course, we seek to offer opportunities that, “get you on the edge of your own reality to feel things you’ve never experienced,” as FCG co-founder Steve “Doom” Fassbinder says. And we work hard to enhance your existing backcountry skills so you can do bigger and more exciting bike and packraft adventures, while at the same time pushing you just a bit further so you can, “find out what you’re really made of.”
We feel certain you’ll walk away from this course with a deeper sense of enjoyment for both living in and utilizing human-powered tools to pass through remote landscapes. We want your experience to be the milestone in your life that you measure everything else up to.
Price: $650
A 50% deposit is due upon receipt to secure your space. The remaining balance is due 30 days prior to your course. The remaining balance is due immediately if you are registering inside of the 30 day window.
Please review our cancellation policy, which you will find on our Terms, Conditions & Cancellation Policy Page.
What's Included
This course includes an open packraft, PFD, paddle, helmet.
What's Not Included
Drysuit, whitewater boat, lodging, shuttling or food.
You will need a drysuit for at least the first day of this trip. Rent drysuits locally at 4CornersRiversports.com (they only have four), or get a 15% discount if you order them online at BackcountryPackraft.com (we will give you the discount code once you pay your deposit).
Instructor
Thad Ferrell: Thad is a Level 4 American Canoe Association Packraft Instructor. He additionally has advanced Swiftwater Safety training and he is a certified Wilderness First Responder. An early adopter of packrafting and life-long cyclist and bikepacker, Thad has accomplished some ground-breaking, multi-week climb-bike-packraft adventures in the desert Southwest. He is also an expert fly fishing guide.
What You will learn
We base our instructional courses on confidence and skill progression. The course starts with the basics. And then we push you a little harder as the days progress, tailoring the experience to your own personal abilities.
Beginners will learn basics paddling skills and river reading techniques such as:
- âś“Equipment (use and care)
- âś“Swimming and general water confidence
- âś“Self-rescue & buddy assistance
- âś“Dealing with currents
- âś“Aggressive & defensive swimming position
- âś“Decision making
- âś“Hazards & river dynamics
- âś“Basic paddle strokes
- âś“Using eddies
- âś“River commands
- âś“Spacing on the river
About The Animas River
Most of the intensive training for this course will take place on up to Class II on the Animas River. We spend a lot of time spent on the Animas City Kayak Play Park. And 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
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
