New Zealand Rafting Association

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1 NEWS FROM THE CHAIR Volume 9 - Issue 2 - July 2009 Hope everyone had good summers and I'm sure some are rafting in warm places now. A few things going on in the industry, Raewyn as per usual is keeping good tabs on it all while many of us are hiding away. SFRITO now Skills Active are conducting a review of the unit standards. The thought is that the content is all there pretty much but it would be a great opportunity to re-organise it. The executive feel if the units were broken down into three main sections. Trip planning and preparation, Rescue and rescue skills. These two sections can be generic units that can be used be a range of river disciplines ie: River boarding. Then you have your specific technical skills units the actual steering of a raft. If any one has any thoughts or requests/ issues with this please pass them onto Raewyn. Some may be aware, others may not be, but there is a court case in progress at the moment where Maritime NZ are prosecuting a company and guide. I have been involved a little in it. A couple of things that I see as being very important for our industry. One is the role of the Maritime NZ auditor. It is so important that this role is filled by someone with a solid rafting background and industry credibility. This is the case at the moment with Colin in this job and long may he stay there. The other thing I see is the importance for guides within our industry to be good thinking people. We work in such a dynamic environment that a guide needs the ability to make quick decisions and act and think on their feet. Ops plans and Hazard boards are all good to a point but at the end of the day a guide needs to read and react to what is present and presented to them at the time. I believe there has been a danger that with training and company ops we are taking that skill away to a degree. Our ops plans can only ever be a guide to what we do out there and now it s a quiet time companies could be using this time to review their plans. On the international scene it looks as if the IRF are really valuing what has been done in NZ and achieved here. This is great Raewyn may be able to brief you all on where it is all at. I haven't caught up with Nic Chater but thanks Nic for representing us on the IRF front. There is some good progress being made on the work shop front Rachael, Koryn and Paul E have a good plan of how we may work it this year. There is a day that will be dedication to rafting skills...prevent the people ever ending up in the water, sounds good to me. It could be like lets polish the skills you already have. The thought is to have like a five day programme where you can select which days you think would be of benefit to you. Look for those dates and locations from Raewyn in the coming months. The next thing is I believe a bold step but a great one from the NZRA and that is to reduce membership to $20 (excl. GST) per guide. We are proud of what the NZRA has helped achieve in industry to date, but we want everyone on board, we can all afford $20. We are really trying for industry so please this is not a lot to ask from you as people working within. Memberships are due for renewal on 1 October so please bear this in mind.

2 Page 2 NEWS FROM THE CHAIR cont d Well that is a bit of an update. On a personal note, many of you may be aware of the Al Moore of Rafting and More Winter Raft trip on the Karamea River. A trip Al has put together for a group of outdoor students out of the US each year for the past few years. It is a tough trip and at a tough time of year...this year Al was calling the trip the last Ha Ra meaning he was over taking on the responsibility and the stress that goes with it. The shame is that this is the way the thought process is going with heavy compliance and such. I think it is a shame that trips like this disappear and in a river bank discussion we were like well let s look at what more steps we can put in place to increase safety and improve the trip. And there are some but of course often at an extra cost but still the guts of it is that we as guides and outdoor operators are undervalued, and it is time it changed. Anyway enough waffle and thanks again Al for a great Karamea trip and a pleasure to work with your guide team thrown together from around NZ. Southy WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BOSNIA 2009 In May 2009, Okere Men with the help of Tourism Rotorua took the challenge of competing in the 2009 World Rafting Championships (WRC). The biennial event consists of four separate disciplines, including individual time trial, head to head knock out, slalom, and down river endurance. This year the competitions were held over seven days on the Vrbas River and Tara River in Eastern Europe, throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The WRC Event began 8 years ago, in West Virginia, USA. Over that time, it has been hosted in some of the most stunning locations on the most magnificent rivers, around the world. In 2001 the Gauley River, West Virginia, USA held the inaugural race, then to the Vlatava River, Czech Republic (2003), next to the Quios River, Ecuador (2005) and onto Naerinchon River, South Korea (2007), and this year to Vrbas and Tara Rivers, Bosnia and Herzogovinia.

3 Page 3 WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BOSNIA 2009 cont d May 19th, Sprint and Head2Head Racing Day. The Sprint is essentially an individual time trial to determine team placing for the Head2Head race. NZ men were picked, at random, to start in 23 rd position for the Sprint. With a strong start and clean run through the rapid,we placed just 2.1 seconds behind first place Brazil, and in 11th place overall! This reminded us that the competition would be very close between all teams. Next, the Head2Head Race. Our 11th placing in the Sprint Race paired us against number 27th Croatia on the Head2Head starting line. It was a close start but NZ got to the rapid first and paddled hard to the finish line to knock Croatia out of the race. Our next race was against the eighth place USA Men. We paddled side by side to the rapid but the USA Men had the right, and faster, line through the rapid. With fighting determination, we came out of the rapid only half a boat length behind. We dug in and pushed through the flat home stretch, but USA Men held their lead to the finish line, knocking NZ out of the race and into 12th place. USA men went on to finish second behind Great Britain. The journey to the Tara River was next on the WRC adventure. An early start and an eight hour bus ride, with a police escort, (which seemed to make the trip a lot longer!) finally got us to the town of Foca, just in time for a street parade with the locals. Foca is the gateway to the Tara River in southern Bosnia, and home to a impressive canyon that is second in height only to the Grand Canyon in the USA. In preparation for the following days race, most teams took the opportunity to rush to the Bosnia-Montenegro boarder to the start of the river, to get one last look at the course before darkness set in for the night. The Tara is a fast flowing Grade 3 River, with virtually continuous wave trains, limited technical challenges, continuous gradient and fast flowing water. We finished the15km practice run in about an hour, ending at our quaint cabins along the River banks. With high surrounding mountains and lush green forests, open fires with fresh fish cooking for dinner, teams refueled and rested for the next days big race.

4 Page 4 WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BOSNIA 2009 cont d May 21, Down River Endurance Race Day..As dawn came and the teams prepared for the days race, it was obvious that the logistics to get 53 teams and officials to the start were getting the race director stressed. After a short delay, we piled into our designated team Kombi Vans with drivers waiting patiently at the wheel and passports in hand, and set off in an expansive 80-car convoy to the put-in across the Montenegro boarder. Teams started the race in pods of 5, fastest to slowest, allowing NZ Men to start in the third pod, along with Italy, Chile, Hungary and the Netherlands. Once again, the racing competition was intense with no team letting up along the 15km course. Passing an opponent's raft was not an easy task, but we did have a few valiant attempts and managed to overtake the Netherlands Men around the 5km mark. This allowed us to finish a mere 38 seconds behind Hungary, who place first in the Downriver Endurance Race, but leaving us in 12th for the day. The women also had a close race, with Japan finishing in first place, just ahead of Netherlands and Czech. The final discipline of the week's event was the Slalom Race. With gates strategically positioned in a challenging, and previously unseen and unpracticed technical course, exciting racing was a sure thing. This year the race was unique as it was set to begin at 5.30pm and continue into the night under spot lights. 30 judges lined the river banks along with a TV crew set up with satellites for live coverage to be aired to the Bosnian National public couch viewers. With approx 20,000 spectators in the recently built river bank stands it was set to be a very intense and thrilling evening. The Women were first on the River. Normally other teams would use the opportunity to watch opponent teams, and plan strategy, race lines and alternate routes, but with 20,000 spectators lining the course, viewing the river was not possible, leaving all teams to wait in the darkness, above the course, in anticipation of their own race. NZ men started in 13th spot. We left the starting gates fast and quickly got onto the course. Heading through the first gate, the crowd was whistling and roaring with cheers of excitement. With the help from the commentator, the crowd got louder and louder. Paddling through seven down-stream and five up-stream gates proved to be very difficult. After the first run, NZ Men were in a trying 23 rd position, with Germany Slovakia and Japan leading the top three. Having some down time before our second run, we used the time to relax and re-assess our strategy and outlook of the course. It was almost 10.30pm when we got on the river for our final race. This time, with the nerves more settled, we negotiated most the gates to near perfection. We finished with only one 5 second penalty for touching the raft on gate 9, allowing us to finish the Slalom course in 13 th position. First, second and third went to Japan, Germany and Czech respectively.

5 Page 5 WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BOSNIA 2009 cont d The overall WRC results showed the Brazil Mens Team defending their 2007 title with another first place overall finish. (1st TT, 5th H2H, 1st DR, 6th Slalom). Japan took second overall and Great Britain third. New Zealand Men ended the competition in 13th spot overall, and very happy to have had the chance to compete in the 2009 World Rafting Championships in Bosnia. In the Womens races, Canada's consistent high placing (3rd TT, 3rd H2H, 5th DR, 1st Slalom) gave them the title of IRF Women's Champions for Second was Japan, third were defending Champions, Czech. Finally, as the event came to an end it was time for the prize giving and social function, and a chance to relax and share memories with the other 52 teams. Thank you again to Tourism Rotorua and everyone that helped and supported through this amazing event. A full list of results may be viewed on Additional photos may be viewed on Text and Photos by Lance Roozendaal & Tina Leone COLIN S CORNER Safety boats and commercial rafting operations Feedback provided to Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) on the recent safety kayak discussion document included comments on safety kayakers undertaking external assessment, there being too much technical detail presented in the discussion document, and that the required skills of a safety kayaker may vary depending on the nature of the river. To address the concerns raised MNZ proposes to include a definition and specific clause in Rule Part 80B to address the use of safety boats and their application with commercial rafting operations: MNZ proposes that the specific skills requirement for craft functioning as safety boats to be developed and overseen by the New Zealand Rafting Association (NZRA). The application of a co-regulation approach between MNZ and the NZRA is the model that MNZ is also using with the commercial kayak and canoe sector. This approach provides the opportunity for the industry to continually assess and review the use of safety boats and required skill-sets of guides and other personnel employed in that capacity.

6 Page 6 COLIN S CORNER cont d MNZ will monitor the appropriate use of safety boats, staff training and induction through the annual SOP audit process. The following wording is proposed to be detailed in part 80B: Definition: safety boat means a kayak, river sledge, or a raft used to support the safety management of a raft trip. Safety boat requirements (1) A commercial raft operator must ensure that: (a) any kayak or river sledge functioning as a safety boat is under the control of a person appropriately skilled, experienced and equipped to be able to safely navigate in support of the commercial rafting trip; and (b) any raft functioning as a safety boat must be under the control of a national raft guide who has been assessed as capable of carrying trainee raft guides, other guides, or employees of the operator on the river, and performing the required safety functions; and (c) any raft functioning as a safety boat must not carry passengers. (2) The use of a river sledge as a safety boat must be approved by the Director. In conjunction with the NZRA, operators will be required to identify relevant performance criteria and outline methods for operators to ensure that safety boats are operated with sufficient skill to support raft trips where required. Swim fins prove their worth as river rescue tools The New Zealand Rafting Association (NZRA) facilitated a Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) sponsored white water boarding rescue workshop in November 2008 for the river boarding and river sledging sector on the roaring Meg section of the Kawarau River. The river boarders and river sledgers demonstrated excellent river manoeuvrability skills, enabling them to access areas of the river that would have required using a tethered raft had they been rafters. The swimming power generated from a pair of swim fins alone is amazing, and to have the fins available in your rescue tool kit could be invaluable. The fins generally used by the river boarders and river sledges use low-cut body-boarding-style fins, as opposed to longer dive fins. They are easily carried in a sweep kit, or in the back of a kayak.

7 Page 7 COLIN S CORNER cont d Recent discussions with white water kayak surfers has identified that some paddlers carry fins when they are kayak surfing on ocean waves. In the event of a deck implosion, they don the fins and swim the swamped kayak to shore. A pair of fins could also be used in place of hand paddles in a kayak, not to be mistaken for the value provided in carrying a spare paddle as some guides managing group-guided rafting recently discovered. A pair of fins, some duct tape and a something resembling a paddle shaft could also be converted into a makeshift paddle. Swim fins are a great tool to assist in river access, but the user must put in the miles or they will end up finding leg muscles they didn t know were there, and will cramp up and be less than useful. Carrying a body board on a raft as part of a sweep kit is also a topic that some raft operators have been discussing with the river boarding sector. It was awesome to be a part of the river boarding, river sledging and raft guide rescue training, and from the discussions to date it would seem that there is a lot of value to be gained from both sectors to further our understanding and abilities in river rescue. Near drowning on whopper stopper rapid on the Buller River On the earthquake section of the Buller River, there was a near-drowning of a rafting passenger in February 2009, after being recirculated in a river hydraulic when the raft flipped. The raft flip was the result of intentionally running the hydraulic known as whopper stopper with a sideways angle to increase the thrill factor of the overall river experience. Although it is common in rafting to play on river features, this type of activity must only be undertaken on river features and in areas on the river where there is a managed or safe run-out, and where the likelihood of injury is low. These decisions must be based on guide judgement on the day and particular flow levels, and cannot be endorsed by historical accounts of this type of activity as the rationale. The retentiveness and risk associated with the hydraulic known as the whopper stopper hole varies with river level. At some river levels the whopper stopper hole is not suitable as a play feature. The drawback area is too steep, and the risk of a raft encountering a violent surf or passenger fallout is too high. To fall from a raft that is surfing in the hole could result in a passenger being recirculated under the raft. Also the whopper stopper hole is at the top of the rapid, which means that any passenger who falls out, would be likely to swim the rest of the rapid. The hole is approximately meters from the river right bank. To rescue a person from this position would mean either: snatch and grab as a raft passed them by expert throw bag skills to execute a maximum distance rope rescue the guide swimming out to the hole to effect a rescue, with a pair of fins to propel themselves efficiently to and from the hole, or passenger self-rescue.

8 Page 8 COLIN S CORNER In this case, the reason that the raft flipped with downstream momentum is a result of a combination of possible scenarios: 1. As the raft dropped into the hydraulic, the passengers were still sitting on the pontoon and were not holding on. As the right pontoon connected with the upstream drawback flow of the hydraulic, the jolt may have resulted in the passengers on the left side falling across the raft towards the right. The momentum of the falling passengers combined with the upstream flow could have resulted in the downstream flip. (When interviewed, the passenger indicated that he did not recall hearing a hold on command. The guide indicated that he did call the hold on command.) 2. The guide had been teaching passengers to hold on by clasping the T-grip of the paddle and the inside rear thwart rope with one hand, while the other hand reaches over the shaft of the paddle and grasps the outside grab line. In this position the paddle shaft is held firmly across the thighs, and the blade is extended out from the side of the raft, with a slightly forward angle and the blade parallel to the raft. If the passengers were holding on in this position as the raft dropped in to the hydraulic, the angle of the raft would have exposed the blade to the upstream flowing water of the hydraulic. The positioning of the shaft across the thighs and the fixed position of the T-grip on the thwart held firm by the passengers may have created additional leverage on the blade, causing the raft to downstream flip. Downstream flips are uncommon and are generally the result of weight change to the downstream side, which may have been further affected by the paddle blade position resulting in additional leverage, creating a tipping effect. The rescue, recovery and evacuation procedures in this accident were well executed. There was a raft downstream that picked up two passengers, and although being forced to run the next rapid, the trip leader ran back upstream to assist in the head count, and to assess the situation. The guide re-righted and recovered his raft to a river left eddy, along with 4 passengers within 150 metres of the whopper stopper hole. The head count assessment of the two guides quickly identified the missing passenger, who was subsequently seen floating downstream from the hole. It is estimated that the missing passenger recirculated in the hole for between 2 3 minutes, and it is presumed that only after he lost consciousness and stopped struggling that he was released from the hydraulic. The guide demonstrated effective rescue skills by waiting to see which current was taking the passenger on his downstream course before paddling from the eddy. If the guide left the eddy too soon, his raft would have washed down the rodeo rapid, before he could pick up the missing passenger from the river. If the guide did not pick up the missing passenger when he did, then it is highly likely the passenger would not have been able to be revived, and would have drowned. After picking up the passenger from the river, the guide then had to navigate the raft through the rodeo rapid. One of the other passengers initiated rescue breathing by performing two rescue breaths, which resulted in the passenger regaining consciousness.

9 Page 9 COLIN S CORNER cont d The trip leader held two crossed paddles above his head to alert the safety driver, who was watching the river from a distant roadside vantage point. The trip leader was also carrying a radio in his raft that he could have used to contact the driver, however, at this point, he was away from his raft, and it was quicker to use the paddles. The support driver knew that two crossed paddles was the emergency signal. He immediately accessed his vehicle, but on this occasion had to drive approximately 7km to the take out vehicle, which held a radio capable of contacting the rafting base. Under normal operating conditions the base-to-base radio is in the vehicle driven by the safety driver, but on this day the regular safety vehicle was away being serviced. The casualty was supported on the raft in the recovery position, and rafted downstream approximately 100m to the closest exit track. He was monitored by the passengers and the guides until he was extracted from the river bank via helicopter, and transported to Murchison medical centre via road ambulance. He was then transported by air to Nelson hospital for observation. The rafting management and the guide maintained contact to monitor the casualty s condition in hospital until he was discharged. Learning points 1. All rafting passengers must be fully trained in all rafting commands and safety instructions, including actions to take to self rescue from a hydraulic, and self rescue techniques to swim to the raft or river bank when possible. 2. Safety of river play activities in the whopper stopper hole need to be thoroughly assessed prior to each run, and safety management options implemented to address the difficulties of executing a rescue if the play results in misadventure. 3. All river play activities should be reviewed to identify which features may be suitable and under what conditions. For example, river play in the vicinity of the Lyell Creek undercut wall would be considered unacceptable as a rafting play activity, because a flip against the undercut wall provides a higher-than-acceptable uncertainty of the outcome. 4. If guides generally work in isolation from other guides, those guides should participate in external training opportunities to assist in their development as guides, and to further their understanding of guiding techniques, increased judgement levels needed for suitable play activities, and further refinement of river rescue skills. 5. Guides who are working at the limit of their qualification should be provided with opportunities to further their skill levels in rafting. On the Buller River earthquake section, the MNZ agreed operational parameters allow guides holding the National Raft Guide Grade 3 Award to guide only up to river levels where the vertical height of the river is no more than 1m from the top of the pyramid rock, which is located directly upstream of the iron bridge on the river right. At levels of 1m from the top of the pyramid rock to the top of the rock which is the commercial rafting cutoff level, the guides must hold a minimum of a National Raft Guide Grade 4 5 Award.

10 Page 10 IRF GUIDE TRAINING & EDUCATION REPORT Over the years NZRA has been working in developing a relationship with IRF. We previously invested funds by bringing IRF Assessor (equivalent to NZ Registrar) Graham Maifredi out from Australia to obtain 8 Instructors, our Registrar s are now accepted as IRF Assessors. In order to get a feeling of where IRF assessments are at and to represent all the NZ IRF Instructors and Assessor, Nick Chater attended the IRF GT&E annual meeting and moderation and then was to participate in a workshop run by Gaspar. Nick s involvement in the annual meeting was much appreciated by those present. The following is Nick s report - Raewyn I have recently been to Bosnia with the NZ raft team. Part of my time in Bosnia was to go and be part of an IRF assessment workshop. I also attended a GT & E meetings with the IRF whilst the competition was on. Firstly the GT&E meeting lasted for a couple of hours and I thought was very productive and done in a really supportive and positive atmosphere. The things coming out of it for me, in particular for the NZRA, was the new fees for guides, which basically meant the IRF instructors don t have to pay an annual fee. I know this was something the NZRA where keen on, pretty much apart from 1 or 2 votes, was passed with positive support. The feeling I got out of the meeting is that they and the International community really think we are at the top of our game as far as guide training and assessment goes. I fielded a lot of questions as to what and how we do things and gained a lot of support for what we have achieved, especially from Freddy from Australia. They are using us as a model to move towards. The movement of the IRF guide training process has been slow with a lower standard than we are used to. They know that they are not ready to be as organized and at a level that NZ is, but they want to get it closer, more level terms in the future. A lot of the problem for them is that many countries have little or no systems for training, assessment, credit reporting or even a national body. After the worlds finished I was the other Instructor with Gasper in running a guide assessment work shop. I thought it was going to be a watch and learn for me, but ended up me being the main Instructor alongside Gasper. It took a bit of time to get into the IRF standard and to what they where trying to achieve The other issue for me and I think a mistake by the IRF, is the guides thought it was a teaching work shop, where we teach them and then they pass at the end. For example a lot of the time on the first day was spent trying to teach them knots and Z drags etc. It was also hard as very few of the guides had been trained. Previously I believe some workshops in the past had been run as a turn up and pass your certificate type workshop. This is something that GT&E are changing. The assessment as it stands doesn t have a lot of specific skills that you have to achieve, i.e. tie 8 specific knots, or demonstrate a z drag etc. So as it stands is vague. The guides where awesome to work with and really keen to learn, so most had their knots sorted by the end of the day. Basically the three days ran like this:

11 Page 11 IRF GUIDE TRAINING & EDUCATION REPORT BY NICK CHATER cont d Day one grade 3 guide assessment. The day started with a talk about the outline of the day and then going through signals so all guides on the same page. We went to the top of the river where groups were sorted. One group doing knots and z drags with me, it was meant to be them showing me there skills, but turned into a lesson for some. The other two groups where doing swimming skills and then throwbag skills. We stopped for lunch and got together as assessors (3 guides were working with me and Gasper to see assessment process in action, plus assisting) and wrote down results and talked about any problems or positives to get out of morning session. Afternoon was spend doing a run on a grade 2 (as the water level was really low) section, only about 1km long, giving the candidates a chance to perform tasks, i.e. fairy angles, eddie catches etc. At the end of the day, back at the base, guides had to perform a flip/ re right drill with a time restraint added. My main concern to Gasper was, we where assessing grade 3 on a grade 2 section and only allowing minutes to get a decision on a candidate. Again it is going to be a gradual process in getting things closer to ours. We finished the day with guides doing a written test, whilst we talked about candidates and decided on pass or NYC. Plus which candidates could go for T.L the next day. Only about half passed there grade 3 assessment. Candidates where then briefed by one of us as to how they went and things need to be seen before they could be passed etc. Day 2, Trip Leader assessment. The day was spent taking each candidate down the section we had done the day before and giving them a particular task to deal with. 2 rafts would head down river, one would set up a scenario and another with the Trip leader in charge would deal with the situation. The other guides where treated as clients and the T.L only had the guide of the other boat as trained assistance. Scenarios, ranged from 1 st aid, to flips, rescue ropes to entrapped persons etc. A debrief was carried out at end of the day, decisions where written down and candidates informed about decisions. Those who could go for Instructor the next day were informed and given a topic for which they had to teach the rest of the group the next day, they had 30mins available. Day three Instructor Assessment. Only 4 people were up for assessment. Candidates gave a lesson to guides. We then went away as assessors, came to a decision, then briefed candidate. A debrief was carried out and any paper work done. Overall I had a great time, loved hanging out with the guys and girls and slowly got my head around the IRF standards etc. I suggested to Gasper that in the future, when going into these countries that don t have a lot of training etc, that it would be good to have some guide training workshop etc for 1-3 days before actual assessment, so candidates would learn skills needed or know to what level we need to see tasks performed. The other option is to give them a set of skills they must have before coming along to assessments.

12 Page 12 IRF GUIDE TRAINING & EDUCATION REPORT BY NICK CHATER cont d Finally I left feeling that if I was going to use an overseas guide with IRF guide card, I would take his certification wth a grain of salt and definitely be looking closely at his skills. I believe there is too much variance in assessment done by IRF assessors, plus the requirements are lower than ours. I do believe they are trying to move in the right direction and we should help where we can. They are very keen to get NZ Instructors out as a group doing workshops and assessments around the world, so that s awesome and look forward to the possibilities of traveling to some cool location with you guys, plus some of the other great people that are out in the world. UPCOMING EVENTS R4 selection races - Tarawera River - 4 October 2009 Details and entry form available from Lance Roozendaal lancesjunglerun@hotmail.com River Guides needed! 50 grade 3 guides or above for Adventure Race Two runs on grade 3 section of river - two hours a run/trip 26th of September Nelson Lakes / Buller River region Paid work. - This is a great event that we have been working with for a couple of years now, great get together at the beginning of the season/early season at that. If you are able to help out with this event please contact Tim Marshall tim@rivers.co.nz Ultimate Descents New Zealand phone 0800 RIVERS 51 Fairfax Street cell Murchison There is a possibility of a SKILL S DAY being held on the 25th aimed at Grade 3 Guides. If you are interested contact Raewyn - nzraftingassociation@xtra.co.nz