Canterbury Packrafting 101

Day 1

We're coming up to Canterbury to run this course. The aim is to spend 2 days on the Lower Rangitata river. Assuming many folks will be driving from Christchurch, we'll aim to meet at 8am at the Cafe Mayfield. We'll spend a bit of time going over some theory and discussing the outcomes of the course to ensure everyone is well prepared and on the same page.

We'll then head into our home for the river. Once we've got into our river gear and made sure everyone has the gear they require, we head down to the river to begin a full day on the water. Please ensure you have enough snacks and some lunch with you, we'll more than likely eat this down on the river.

Initially we'll cover some basics around river swimming and what to do should you find yourself in the water but then the rest of the session is spent focusing on the acquasion of paddling skills.  We aim to finish day one with a full run of the river, working on scouting and executing lines and putting into practice all the skills we've learned. Before heading back to town.

Day Two

Day two we continue to work on the skills we've been working on from day, catching eddies, making moves and playing on the river, but this time we'll be introducing more safety and rescue skills. This will include throw bagging, self rescue (deep water re-entry) and peer rescues from your raft. 

Equipment

We encourage people to bring as much of their own equipment as possible so that they get used to the gear they will use in the real world. However, we understand this is a "try before you buy" for many people and folks may not have gear yet. We are very happy to supply equipment for a nominal fee. The reason we charge a small fee is to encourage students to take ownership of the equipment used during the course and mitigate against the occasional loss and damage of our kit. This nominal fee ($40 per day) can be used as towards any equipment purchases made through us after the course.