There may come a time when your guide yells “hang on” to prevent your exit from the raft. However, grabbing a secure point is not needed on every decent down a rapid. Your guide will show you where to sit in the raft, how to hold the paddle and where to grab when instructed. Our rafts have secure handles down the middle of each craft (see image below).
To safely hang on, let go of the T-grip (your inside hand) and raise the grip straight up. This avoids whacking someone else with it. This brings up the old guide joke, ” Do you know what sum’r teeth means? It means sum’r in your mouth and sum’r in the river”. Haha. Next, as you grab the handle, lean into the center of the raft, bringing your center of gravity low and into the middle. Also important is being ready to resume paddling after holding on is no longer necessary. The video below was taken in the Taos Box section of the Rio Grande in 2019. The rapid is Rock Garden at about 4,000 cfs.
The short one minute video below shows a very good example of hanging on.
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