Our Guide Staff
Our guide staff at Royal Gorge Rafting
25/05/11 13:48
What it takes to be employed at Royal Gorge Rafting.
Image: Senior Guide, David Bonogofski confidently running his guests down the Royal Gorge.
We take our staffing seriously! Where most companies train up to 20+ guides year in year out, we at Royal Gorge Rafting require our guides to have a minimum of at least 4 years white water experience. Most of our crew have around 10 years on average and this requirement definitely sets us apart from the crowd. The minimum State requirements are set at 50 hours prior to taking you down the river. A lot of companies exceed this 2 fold because they also feel it is better to have more experience than less!
We understand every guide has to start somewhere but we prefer they do not start here at Royal Gorge Rafting and not with your family on your vacation. This does not mean that other outfitters on the Arkansas River maintain a staff of hodge podge guides, A “rookie” guide can definitely become a good guide over time. We just prefer to know that all of the guides we employ are seasoned professionals and are solid on the river which is of great value to us and we assume your group or family as well. We prefer not to “hand over the keys to the car to the teenager” and set you loose with them... We have always said from the get go when we developed our program in 2004 that Experience Counts more than anything and that includes not only our experience but it clearly relates directly to yours!
Our guide staff employed at Royal Gorge Rafting choose to work at Royal Gorge Rafting because they enjoy knowing that the guides on their team are serious about their profession and are not here for a one year summer camp type of experience. We keep the best of the best on staff and this is reflected in the rapid growth of our business. In just 6 rapid seasons we have grown to be the second largest outfitter in rafting our namesake - the Royal Gorge! We have grown from a team of 4 guides and kayakers in 2004 to a team of 20 guides and kayakers in 2011 and we are capping our staff at this point as well as the amount of guests we take rafting so that our size does not out weigh your experience.
We understand that by nature being bigger is by no means being better and that your experience will be compromised by too much growth on our part. We want to enjoy our selves as much as you want to enjoy your time on the river with us at Royal Gorge Rafting. See for yourself what our clients have to say about our staff at Royal Gorge Rafting!
We have with great pride and effort have also rapidly become the #1 attraction in Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region due to our professional staff at our newly founded Zip Line Tours! We hand pick our staff, seek only the best and in turn we are proud of being the best in our class on the Arkansas River and on our high flying zip line adventures at Royal Gorge Zip Line Tours (insert blowing of horn...) Check out a few of our staff cards below.
*A notable regard to this is that on extremely rare occasions in the past at Royal Gorge Rafting we have had guides join us from other outfitters on our busier days - They are known as rent - a - guides and they may not always have obtained the required 4 years that we require of our team. That is an absolute to be a part of our full time staff. At times it is necessary to “borrow” a rent a guide or two to run the amount of rafts that is demanded per our reservations. We avoid this practice but when this occurs we make sure they are a welcome part of our crew for the day and we try to make their duties reserved only for the river so we are able to keep our program running the way we intend it to run for our clients. When a rent - a - guide joins us often times they do exceed our requirements of our staffing criteria but either way we keep them in the middle of our on river “pod” and make sure they are confident in running smooth lines down river.
Like our support kayakers, our exclusive experienced guide requirements are yet another example of what makes us the best of class in what we love to do! (insert another horn blow here!) We hope to see you on the river!
Image: Senior Guide, David Bonogofski confidently running his guests down the Royal Gorge.
We take our staffing seriously! Where most companies train up to 20+ guides year in year out, we at Royal Gorge Rafting require our guides to have a minimum of at least 4 years white water experience. Most of our crew have around 10 years on average and this requirement definitely sets us apart from the crowd. The minimum State requirements are set at 50 hours prior to taking you down the river. A lot of companies exceed this 2 fold because they also feel it is better to have more experience than less!
We understand every guide has to start somewhere but we prefer they do not start here at Royal Gorge Rafting and not with your family on your vacation. This does not mean that other outfitters on the Arkansas River maintain a staff of hodge podge guides, A “rookie” guide can definitely become a good guide over time. We just prefer to know that all of the guides we employ are seasoned professionals and are solid on the river which is of great value to us and we assume your group or family as well. We prefer not to “hand over the keys to the car to the teenager” and set you loose with them... We have always said from the get go when we developed our program in 2004 that Experience Counts more than anything and that includes not only our experience but it clearly relates directly to yours!
Our guide staff employed at Royal Gorge Rafting choose to work at Royal Gorge Rafting because they enjoy knowing that the guides on their team are serious about their profession and are not here for a one year summer camp type of experience. We keep the best of the best on staff and this is reflected in the rapid growth of our business. In just 6 rapid seasons we have grown to be the second largest outfitter in rafting our namesake - the Royal Gorge! We have grown from a team of 4 guides and kayakers in 2004 to a team of 20 guides and kayakers in 2011 and we are capping our staff at this point as well as the amount of guests we take rafting so that our size does not out weigh your experience.
We understand that by nature being bigger is by no means being better and that your experience will be compromised by too much growth on our part. We want to enjoy our selves as much as you want to enjoy your time on the river with us at Royal Gorge Rafting. See for yourself what our clients have to say about our staff at Royal Gorge Rafting!
We have with great pride and effort have also rapidly become the #1 attraction in Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region due to our professional staff at our newly founded Zip Line Tours! We hand pick our staff, seek only the best and in turn we are proud of being the best in our class on the Arkansas River and on our high flying zip line adventures at Royal Gorge Zip Line Tours (insert blowing of horn...) Check out a few of our staff cards below.
*A notable regard to this is that on extremely rare occasions in the past at Royal Gorge Rafting we have had guides join us from other outfitters on our busier days - They are known as rent - a - guides and they may not always have obtained the required 4 years that we require of our team. That is an absolute to be a part of our full time staff. At times it is necessary to “borrow” a rent a guide or two to run the amount of rafts that is demanded per our reservations. We avoid this practice but when this occurs we make sure they are a welcome part of our crew for the day and we try to make their duties reserved only for the river so we are able to keep our program running the way we intend it to run for our clients. When a rent - a - guide joins us often times they do exceed our requirements of our staffing criteria but either way we keep them in the middle of our on river “pod” and make sure they are confident in running smooth lines down river.
Like our support kayakers, our exclusive experienced guide requirements are yet another example of what makes us the best of class in what we love to do! (insert another horn blow here!) We hope to see you on the river!
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