Level 3/4 Packraft Mastery Course: Learn Advanced Whitewater Paddling & Expedition Skills w/ Jeff Creamer
Note: This course is for people who aspire to become advanced packrafters and who are solid Class III boaters. You don’t need to be a Class IV packrafter to take this course. However, you do need solid packrafting and backcountry skills, plus current swiftwater safety certification, among other things. See the course description for more information.
If you need additional help determining whether or not you fit into this course, please read our blog post, “What Level Packrafter Are you?“. Please also email us any time with questions. Check out some photos from previous years on our Facebook page.
Do you want to take your intermediate expedition packrafting skills to the next level with two of America’s most accomplished packrafters and one of the premier Class V packraft expeditionists in the country? Learn the skills you need to become a more advanced boater from Jeff Creamer and Steve Fassbinder. This course will be held on various parts of the Animas River. We now have permits for the Upper Animas from Silverton down to Purgatory Flats.
What are some of the skills you will learn?
- ✔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.
- ✔How to work together with other packrafters in fast-moving whitewater scenarios to ensure a safe expedition.
Listen to, “A Beginner’s Guide to Packrafting & Bikerafting,” Episode #4 interview with Jeff Creamer to learn more about how one of our advanced instructors learned advanced whitewater paddling skills and became an accomplished paddler.
A 50% deposit is required to register. You must pay the remaining balance within 90 days of the course. Or you must pay in full if registering within 90 days of the course.
Please review our cancellation policy, which you will find on our Terms, Conditions & Cancellation Policy Page.
Excellent instruction by highly-accredited guides.
Shuttling, whitewater packrafting equipment, food, lodging.
Jeff Creamer
Jeff is based in Mancos, Colorado and has been packrafting since 2013. Entering the sport as a novice river runner, he now pushes the limits of expedition Class V packrafting in the North American West and has also worked on development of combination ski+packraft routes in the West and Alaska. Jeff developed his technical paddling skills as an outrigger canoe racer while earning his PhD in geology, but currently works part-time in packraft manufacturing and design and has worked as a swiftwater rescue and skills instructor with SSI since 2019 on packraft-specific courses.
Steve Fassbinder
Steve, aka “Doom,” is one of the country’s first Level 4 American Canoe Association Packraft Instructors. And he is a certified International Rescue 3 Whitewater Rescue Technician Professional (WRT-PRO) and IRF Whitewater Packraft Guide. Steve is also certified in Advanced Swiftwater Safety and Wilderness First Responder. An early adopter of packrafting, he has guided or instructed bike-packrafting to kids and adults for over a decade. And he has done remote packrafting expeditions around the world for over a dozen years.
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
Group Dynamics
- ✓Scouting and decision-making
- ✓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
- ✓Storytelling
- ✔You must have swiftwater rescue certification.
- ✔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, throw rope, whistle and river knife.
- ✔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 just a few 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.
- ✔You must be comfortable paddling into and out of eddies in a Class III rapid.
- ✔You must be confident in Class III rapids.
- ✔Please 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.
