If you’re into thrilling outdoor activities that get your adrenaline pumping, choosing rafting as a sport could be a great option! No need to worry if you’re still a newbie, there are some rafting tips for beginners that you can follow.
One of the tips is to wear appropriate clothing and gear. Go for clothes that aren’t too tight to ensure your comfort during rafting.
Do you want to know more first-time rafting tips? Let’s dive into the information in the article below! Check this out!
Essential First-Time Rafting Tips to Follow
Do you know what rafting is? Rafting, also known as whitewater rafting, is an extreme sport carried out on a river using a special rubber boat called a raft.
Rafting is often enjoyed by people who love challenges because you need to control the raft in a river with strong currents.
And you know what? It’s not impossible that you’ll encounter other obstacles, such as river rocks and waves while enjoying whitewater rafting.
Now, if you’re still a newbie but interested in trying out whitewater rafting, here are some friendly rafting tips to prepare for beginners!
1. Keep Your Body Fit
The first and most important rafting tip is to take care of your body’s health as best as possible. In other words, you need to keep your body fit before rafting.
You’ll need strong stamina to paddle and face various challenges. Therefore, before you embark on your rafting adventure, make sure you get enough sleep and don’t forget to consume healthy, well-balanced meals!
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2. Wear the Right Attire
Don’t expect your body to dry when rafting despite your intention to stay in the boat the whole trip. Expect to get soaked to fully enjoy the rafting experience.
Therefore, you need to wear the right attire. Choose clothes that will dry quickly, such as polypro, and avoid cotton that takes a long time to dry.
That will work best if you take your rafting during summer but it would be a different case in early spring.
The water would be a little chilly and, thus, you need to wear a wetsuit and splash jacket that allows you to enjoy the thrill without the chill.
3. Wear the Protective Gears
Your safety is paramount in all rafting tips mentioned here, meaning that you need to always equip yourself with protective gear.
Wear your helmet and always keep your life jacket on to ensure your safety and avoid any harm. Moreover, always listen to your guide.
There are many submerged logs, rocks, and branches that might not be visible from your position on the boat. Having your safety gear on will help you avoid hitting your head or body against those things.
4. Warm Up
Whitewater rafting isn’t like enjoying a cruise on calm water. Instead, you will always need to move your body, especially paddling.
You wouldn’t want your body to suddenly cramp up and get injured while rowing the boat, right? That’s why, before getting into the river, it’s important for you to warm up first.
No need to make it complicated, you can warm up by stretching your body or jogging along the riverbank.
5. Hold the Paddle Properly and Know How to Paddle
The next crucial rafting tip you need to pay close attention to is to know how to paddle properly. The guide would teach you how to hold and paddle before getting into the river.
During the rafting against the river flow, it’s the paddling by the rafters that plays an important role to ensure effective navigation.
It’s essential to pay attention and listen to your guide. When they say “paddle”, you need to paddle immediately as you’ve been taught.
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6. Don’t Panic!
If and when you happen to fall out of the raft or your boat flips, never panic as it only worsens the situation.
It’s important to know what to do if you fall and the guides will tell you in detail at the beginning of the trip. But you still need to know the preparation.
Some of them include swimming towards the raft and grabbing the safety line, calling out to your friends to pass you a paddle to hold on to, or looking for other rescue options from other boats or the riverbank.
7. Listen to Your Guides
Last but not least, always pays attention to your guide’s commands. Regardless of whether you’ve been rafting before, it’s still important to listen to your guides.
They will teach you before going into the river about some instructions from what to avoid, where to swim, and definitely when to paddle.
Mostly, their instructions are simple and easy to follow, such as paddle, lean right, lean left, and stop paddling.
So, that’s a complete review of rafting tips and preparations for beginners that you should know.
To further enhance your rafting experience, you can take a photo with your team and upload the exciting moment on social media.
To share your thrilling moments during rafting, you can make use of Jagat by uploading photos on NOW feature!
Moreover, if you want to tag the location of the rafting spot, simply click the “create a new location” button in the NOW feature so that the location can be saved in the Jagat app!
How does that sound? Interested in trying Jagat? Download the app for your smartphone on App Store or Google Play Store now!
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