RED CROSS Hometown Hero Awards for WET Guides!

RED CROSS Hometown Hero Awards for Alex, Jason & Nate
Originally uploaded by W.E.T. River Trips

On a beautiful June in 2010, our guides were preparing a lunch on a South Fork American river trip for our guests. One of the guests started yelling, "There's a person in the river! He's not moving!"

Alex, Nate and Jason ran down to the river to see a lifeless child moving fast in the swift water. They jumped into a tethered raft, paddled as hard as they could and quickly reached the child.

Life saving measures were executed by these trained professionals with Red Cross training in First Aid, CPR and also Wilderness Responder.

The three guides, Alex, Nate and Jason, brought the child back to life. Alex then ran an adrenalin-pumping one mile up stream over trees, boulders and river to see if there was anyone else in jeopardy. He found the child's parent and their friends and let the Dad know his son was alive and safe.

The Red Cross heard about the rescue through the whitewater rafting community. They verified the story with the regulatory agencies on that river... and then they called our office. As the story unfolded, the Red Cross representative asked our company to submit the information in behalf of the guides.

A Red Cross award ceremony hosted by KCRA TV showed a film with an interview of the guides. A beautiful luncheon accompanied the ceremony honoring Alex, Nate and Jason for being Hometown Heroes!

All three guides have worked for WET for over 10 years or more. They are professionals that put their lives last when it comes to providing a safe environment for our regular commercial guests. They have done river rescues in the past where they have faced death and lived to tell about it.

This rescue saved the life of a young boy who now has an opportunity to share water safety and life saving measures with his friends and family. We hope Joseph has a wonderful future of life, love and prosperity!

Congratulations! to WET River Trips' guides for their incredible rescue that day. Hats off to Alex, Nate & Jason for putting their own lives at risk to save another.

For those of you who dream of becoming a professional whitewater guide, here are some resources for you wannabes:

• Red Cross : First Aid and CPR; advanced training available
• Wilderness Responder : wilderness rescue techniques and life-saving measures
• Wilderness EMT : highest level of wilderness medical training
• White Water Guide School : professional whitewater rafting guide school in California
• Swift Water Rescue : rescue on fast-moving rivers and water; university approved
• Technical Rope Rescue : river bank and vertical scenario rescues

music festivals in the outdoors

What a summer of music festivals! From Coachella to SMMRBMMR to the recent and well-attended Burning Man in Nevada, this summer was filled with awesome music and artists. Tragedy over-shadowed the German Love Family Park where hordes of young adults were trampled in a tunnel and several died. And, of course, Teknival's free raves peppered abandoned military installations and other locations in the outdoors in the UK, France, Bulgaria and other countries. We are now entering the Fall music festival season.

Burning Man has influenced so many music festivals, raves and happenings around the world, and we thought we would share some of our favorites. Big Poppa was a bit disappointed in this year's Burning Man as he felt that the participants weren't true Burners, but he is a purist. Here are his photos and thoughts...

"I'm NOT a burner.

Yes, I've just come back from Burning Man event (I skipped 2009) and I'm NOT a burner. My first (as they @ BRC say..."Virgin") visit was approached like a wilderness river trip. I packed up the Dodge with waterproof metal boxes with food, sun shower, cooking gear, LED lights, solar batteries, toys and water. I also packed marine coolers with plenty of ice, beverages, and fresh food for a full crew. Adding to the pile were two bikes for myself and my crew of one: Mizz Maggie. The Dodge bed became a shelter, and I brought a shade structure and another tent for stowing gear out of the sun and wind...no dust. We went out for 4-days and had an amazing time; but, we left before the actual "Burn".

This year, I rolled out ultra-light; yet, still self-contained on my Kawasaki KLR 650. I still had everything I needed: food (freeze dried), water, tent, pad, bag, and solar-powered LED garden globes (that changed colors!).

In 2010, the winds whipped up the dust constantly on a record (reportedly) 65,000 "burners" and the party raged. I saw the "Burn". I also saw fewer happy, healthy people and fewer themed camps and out-of-date Art cars. Maybe I had a different perspective... after the burn... no shower, no bike, and no crew left me in that boat (maybe it was also the folks across the street (yes, it was called "That Camp") that had a club-sized sound system that blasted from 9am to 5am... with 4 people mulling around and stomping in the dust (oh well, they were from Philadelphia!). So, I packed up and rode the KLR home the long way over Monitor pass where I saw the signs of fall in changing colors and a nip in the air.

Next time (yes, I might skip next year)... I'm rolling hard and deep! Motorhome? Airstream? Dome?... who knows?

I'm not a Burner."

~~ Big Poppa 2010

Upcoming this weekend: American River Music Festival is ideal for families and music lovers and includes whitewater rafting, camping, music and food!

Music Festivals Around the World:

Burning Man : early September; theme camps, Black Rock Desert; art, raves, performance (began in San Francisco, California and influenced many festivals below)

Edinburgh's Hogmanay : Dec 30, 2010 - Jan 2, 2011; Concert in the Gardens (KT Tunstall, The Proclaimers, Madness, etc)

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival : mid-April Indio, CA; cutting-edge indie, alternative, official opening for summer festivals in US (The Black Keys and more)

Bonnaroo : Manchester, TN 2011 tba (Weezer, Tori Amos, Norah Jones & more this year)

Rocking the Rivers : mid-Aug, Three Forks, Montana (Collective Soul, Commander Cody, etc)

Love Family Park : early July, German Techno Rave (dj Sven Vath, Ricardo Villalobos, etc)

Paris Techno Parade : late Sept; 1/2 million people dancing in street (djs David Guetta, Mark Knight, Django, etc)

Teknival : free parties held all over the world; France, UK, Bulgaria, Czech, Italy (summer raves; grassroots, Burning Man influenced)

Vans Warped Tour : several sites in US from West Coast to East Coast (Dickies, Fear, Green Jelly, etc)

SMMRBMMR : alternate, indie music in northwestern US (G.Green, Mayyors, White Fang, etc)

Live Oak Music Festival : blue grass, jazz, world music held over Father's Day Weekend

American River Music Festival : whitewater rafting and music; folk, country, alternative (last year Jackie Green; this year Jesse Winchester and more)

Rio Carnival : mid-February Rio de Janeiro; world famous, colorful parades (Brazilian, world, jazz, etc)

New Orleans Mardi Gras : mid-February French Quarter; jazz, food, parades

No matter what music festival you attend, remember you are there for friends, fun, music, food and goodwill. Rave on and see you on the river!

Thanks to Big Poppa for his Burn pics and sharing his personal view.

WET River Trips photostream