We’ve all been there where we’re stoked on a piece of gear and it’s literally the best thing ever made…then we tear through the buckle, the zipper rips, or the sole inexplicably falls off on a portage. Basically, everything we use out there is a consumable that is not going to hold up to harsh conditions.

Do you really need that sparkly new drysuit, oh or how about a rescue PFD…well do you need a flip line, how about a perimeter line? What do we really need in the outdoors and are you doing a proper risk evaluation? Every time you add a new piece of gear you add a large swath of risks to that gear.

In this video we're talking with Nadia from Desert Mountain Medicine about Standards in wilderness medical certifications. We are looking at why it is so important to have good training and how the outdoor industry is advancing the study of wilderness medicine.

If you can’t take care of your own skin, how can you take care of the needs of your guests? This is a question I’ve heard several times in reference to guide professionalism, and honestly there is merit to this statement. The devils in the details as they say and similar to stinking when you show up, being detail oriented about your hygiene goes a long way to establishing trust with a crew.

A lot of people are still in a gung-ho mindset after an injury though so often times people will overstate their ability to recover from a major injury. Unfortunately our bodies don't often need a gung -ho recovery, but a more tempered approach. Having a clear rehabilitation plan from your doctors can give you a sense of control and purpose when you're adjusting to the reality of an injury. A structured path to recovery is not only super reassuring, but it can keep your mental game strong by showing you where you should be. So, let's talk about how to set realistic expectations of your recovery time.

Human waste can have a number of negative effects on the environment if it is not properly managed. One of the main concerns is the potential for disease transmission. Human waste can contain a variety of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites, that can cause illnesses if they come into contact with people or animals.

You’re deep in a canyon running a new section of river and you just flipped and you lost all your paddles… Great now what? No paddles means no way to continue down river right? This is a situation I have been in several times and it is basically as close to a trip ending scenario as you can get second to a major injury or losing the boat. Losing an essential piece of equipment in the outdoors is typically associated with some sort of catastrophic failure during the trip.

What does it mean to be good at your job or have good skills in the outdoors? Well, you have to start with being high performance and that high level of performance requires that you achieve mastery over a broad set of skills. Terms are important here’s for this discussion skill mastery a comprehensive and advanced understanding of the skill, shown by the ability to consistently perform tasks related to that skill at a high level.

Let’s be honest boating is one of the harshest environments you can put rope and webbing through. Boaters often complain that their gear is constantly falling apart and that gear doesn’t last due to the harsh strain we put on our gear. Between the water, microscopic sand, mold, and whatever else is hiding in the water, materials breakdown super quickly. With this in mind we wanted to take a look at how quickly ropes break down and when to retire our ropes.

Some people love being in the outdoors alone and getting to be by themselves with their own thoughts. I am definitely not one of those people. Perhaps it’s the youth camp I went to where they made me walk alone in the dark or perhaps its extreme nature of outdoor sports I practice, but I personally feel that the outdoors is not safe. I see plenty of influencers out there claiming the outdoors is their safe space, but let’s put the fortune cookie philosophy aside for a second and look at the boating side of outdoor sports.

So, you’ve come to the marquee drop of the run, that one big nasty drop that everyone has be dreading all day. A lot of boaters have an inclination to drop their gear and equipment of fin the raft and have lunch, a toilet break, or a scout. Personally, I like to be prepared and not having my gear on me gives me the ick as the kids say. What do you take with you when you go for a scout?

Leadership is a term that folks in the outdoors throw around so much that it has lost a ton of meaning in outdoor adventure sports. There has been a misguided premise building for decades in the outdoor community that we like to think that high performance individuals = solid high trust leaders. Afterall if you can’t run the hardest rapids, ski the biggest mountain, or free solo the tallest wall what business do you have talking about anything in the outdoors? This sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth and it relies on both a logical fallacy and the idea that 2 things cannot be true at once.

It is a common sentiment in the modern world that people feel like they thrive is stressful situations. This very idea is often cited as the reason people take up dangerous occupations or adventure sports. The reality is that no one actually thrives on stress.

Why does every piece of outdoor gear I own stink all the time? River gear for a variety of reasons is the worst so we’re diving into why this happens and how to deal with it. There are really 2 factors at play here. It’s partly you and partly the environment. The reality is you stink and were gonna fix it…with science.

What does a raft guide look like to you? Guides often grapple with this as every year we have a new crop of fresh guides coming in who are eager to learn. New guides may not understand the rules and mindset of what is required of them. Similarly senior guides may have trouble articulating what it is to be a guide and what is required of new boaters.

One of the biggest questions we get is what is the best raft? The answer is really simple…it’s the boat that you like. Just like anything in the outdoors there’s an ideal tool for every job and a raft is no different. If you’re taking 6 kids to school, you’re not going to take a race car. All rafts aren’t equal. Some boats are designed for high performance r2ing and some are fantastic for rowing a multiday trip with the family.

Safety is a difficult topic in the outdoor adventure community, on the one hand we want our friends and family to return home at the end of the trip. On the other hand, we are engaged in an inherently risky activity. So, the big question is where is the middle ground between safety and acceptance of an increased risk profile?

In the river world and in rescue scenarios boaters talk a lot about Mechanical Advantage with the venerable z-rig being the standard that boaters have been taught since the olden days when the first boaters rode dinosaurs to run their shuttles. These days there is a lot of debate on the best systems and equipment to use out there. The debate is going to rage for eternity in boating and for good reason. Standards improve as we develop best practices each year.

Communication is super critical for success in high stress situations, we all know that, but somewhere along the way the idea that 2 people shouldn’t talk while they’re rafting came along and it won’t go away. This whole idea sometimes called Zen boating creates a big problem for our community and we need to seriously reevaluate why we do this.

As Team Paddler Kailee Hutchison calls it “the white wall” and hitting it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, when you hit the whitewall, it takes whatever you were just doing and fragments it in your memory. There are a variety of psychological phenomenon at work here, but at the end of the day it is a stress response that affects your memory. When you’re charging hard it alters the way you perceive your surroundings and creates adrenaline fueled gaps in your memory.