“Swift Water Rescue”, “Wilderness First Responder” and whitewater skills are a given for any professional river guide. Character and judgement are critically important too. Earth River guides understand their most important role on a trip is providing for the safety and well-being of our guests on and off the river. Earth River guides also have to be mature enough to deal with the unforeseen obstacles that can arise on an exploratory and the added challenges associated with guiding novice rafters including media, policy makers and indigenous community members on conservation trips.
Safety innovation has been the ethos of Earth River for 36 years. From inventing foot cups in the rafts to the invention of the safety cataraft on large volume rivers like the Futaleufu,
"I've rafted with Eric Hertz down some tough rivers—the Futaleufu in Chile, the Colca in Peru. He's one of the best in the business—obsessed with safety."
—National Geographic Magazine
Earth River has been in the forefront of whitewater safety innovation. We were among the first to double guide paddle boats on expeditionary class 5 rivers, and to instruct our guests to swim on their stomachs towards safety, rather than float on their backs with their feet up. Earth River installed the first water gauges on the Futaleufu and set high water safety cut offs that are still followed today.