Hard day at the office.
Job descriptions vary.
Chillin’
“Tryin’ to make a livin’, doin’ the best I can...”
Guide by day... Why Raft?
Guiding courses fill with people looking for some kind of change or just looking for cool work outdoors. I’d just finished nine years of service with the Canadian Forces and rafting seemed like a low-stress way to spend the sum- mer, meet some people and learn about the river. Although I’d never gone rafting, I did have my roll and had done just enough paddling to know I needed to learn more.
Jocelyn Dunstan, a.k.a. Jawz, an 18-year-old N’klapkap’muxw native, came from Lytton, B.C., where the Thompson River flows into the Fraser. “My parents, my family and everybody I know lives or works on the Thompson. The river’s part of our lifestyle, with the fishing and everything you just have to be there.” Then there was Sophie, a 22-year-old Quebecois who quickly earned the nickname, “Sophee not Sophie!”
“I did two outdoor trade shows for my old employer in Montreal and right in front of us was a kiosk for a rafting company,” Sophie said, “At a second kiosk another company was looking for guides. I wanted to do something else, and I didn’t want to stay in Quebec so I started look- ing on the Internet.” A third student, Brad Braun, 34, a marine
electronics technologist, said, “I liked rafting and also I was looking at options. I was tired of my job and wanted to explore something in the outdoors. It was something I had never really done before.” Interestingly few western guides were there to find a way to be on the river and paddle dur- ing their off-time. In fact, among the guides I met, dedicated paddlers were actually a small albeit obvious minority. “Pathetic, isn’t it?” was the only comment of one of the Hyak paddlers
who declined to be named. “So many people get into rafting and then don’t go paddling.” This is not necessarily the case with out East,
where most companies are full of paddlers. But if you’re deciding between your regular job and paddling on the weekends versus becoming a guide and living on the river, chances are you won’t paddle any more by becoming a guide. “In July and August I had maybe seven days off,” said Steve Plummer, 31, a senior guide at Esprit Rafting.
Some paddling work is available as safety/video kayakers, or as instructors with some of the larger companies that run paddling schools on the Ottawa. The downside is the small amount of work. Only one safety/video kayaker is needed per trip, and paddlers are usually forced to combine kayaking with guiding to be employed full-time. Only high-end kayak- ers get the teaching positions.
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photos this page top left: Rob Faubert, all others: Rapid Stock Images.
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