Site Home  
This Issue Home  
Contact List  

By Tom Todd

The success of any group depends on the willingness and enthusiasm of its members to take on leadership roles. We have been very fortunate to have a good number of experienced and capable leaders for many years. This is in part because trip leading is fun and in part because paddlers feel that they want to give back to the group. Being awarded a leadership rating with in NH AMC Paddlers is an honor. It also a recognition of the paddlers generosity in giving back to the group, a wonderful generosity that many of our new members have first encountered during the Spring Whitewater school

The NH AMC Paddlers maintains a ratings system for paddlers and leaders. This rating system serves as a method of guidance for both paddlers and leaders that help match the paddlers abilities to the rivers being paddled. The ratings system also provides a framework in which paddlers can work towards improving their skills. The award of a rating to a paddler is considered an honor of which the paddler should be justifiably proud.

The leadership ratings are also an honor and require some amount of work to attain. We maintain a leadership rating system to provide a frame work under which our trips are run in a consistent manner and with appropriate attention to safety and fun. The ratings system assures to paddlers joining our trips that the leader has undergone leadership training and is competent at leading trips at the level of water being paddled.

A leadership rating also indicates that that person has made the effort to give back to the group and help provide activities that we will all enjoy. As a requirement of the AMC liability insurance, all our official trips are lead by rated leaders who are dues paying members of the AMC. (The AMC dues, in part, funds the insurance premium.)

The Ratings Committee has recently updated the ratings procedures document which is included later in this newsletter.

Ratings Committee Guidelines for Awarding White Water Paddling and Leadership Ratings

1. It is expected that the Ratings Card Process as described below will be the normal method for awarding a rating. Exceptions to the Ratings Card Process will be rare. To justify an exception, the Ratings Committee will need paddling credentials that make obvious a paddler has the prerequisite experience, skills and training criteria that the Committee has applied to all paddlers who have received a similar rating.

The Ratings Committee reserves the right, at its discretion, to award ratings without following the exact guidelines outlined below.

2. The Trip Leader or their designee may sign Ratings Cards. The ratings assignment must have been arranged and agreed to PRIOR to the start of the trip. Raters must have a rating equal to or greater than the level being rated.

A signature implies that the signer has PERSONALLY OBSERVED the paddler successfully complete the listed river and the paddler DEMONSTRATE the skills while on the river required for the rating.

A separate card is required for each boat type.

3. The Ratings Committee will meet in person at least once a year in the fall prior to the NH AMC Paddlers annual meeting.

The Ratings Chair may conduct ratings business during the year with the Committee members via e-mail and phone.

4. All Rating Committee decisions require a quorum of the Committee and a majority vote of the Committee members present. A quorum is 2/3 of the Committee.

Receiving a Class II rating from the NH AMC Paddlers Rating Committee

Refer to “In Flood” for current skill requirements

Participate in the Spring White Water School and then complete 2 additional Class II river trips on 2 or more different Class II Rivers and acquire 2 different signatures on a NH AMC Paddlers Ratings Card for the trips as they are completed.

If not attending the Spring White Water School complete 3 Class II river trips on 2 different Class II Rivers and acquire 3 different signatures.

1. “Rater” must be a member of the NH AMC Paddlers.

2. After making a copy for their records, the paddler sends the Ratings Card to the Ratings Chair

At the next Ratings Committee meeting, all Ratings Cards received are reviewed and ratings are either awarded or rejected. Paddlers not receiving a rating from the Committee will be sent a letter from the Ratings Chair outlining the Committee’s reasons.

Refer to “In Flood” for current skill requirements

1. Gain experience on at least 3 Class III river trips BEFORE ratings signatures are collected.

2. The paddler must demonstrate rescue skills or have taken normally offered NH AMC Paddlers (or equivalent) rescue training.

1. The Card is signed for 4 different Class III Rivers.

2. 3 of the “raters” must be different.

3. At least 2 of the raters must be NH AMC Paddlers. The other raters may be members of other paddling organizations recognized by NH AMC Paddlers. All raters must be classified by their organization as a Class III or higher rated paddler.

4. After making a copy for their records, the paddler sends the Ratings Card and ”documentation” to the Ratings Chair

At the next Ratings Committee meeting, all Ratings Cards received are reviewed and ratings are either awarded or rejected. Paddlers not receiving a rating from the Committee will be sent a letter from the Ratings Chair outlining the Committee’s reasons.

A Class IV paddler is an expert in all aspects of boat handling. Class IV paddlers can be relied upon to be responsible for themselves in Class IV white water, to lead and to direct others down a river, to stop and to render assistance as necessary (even in difficult rapids), and to be fully competent in applying safety techniques and to be able to direct rescue efforts. Class IV paddlers have both superior skills and superior experience that is second nature and can be relied upon in all areas of the sport.

In addition to water level skills, A Class IV paddler is aware that a majority of the membership looks upon them as senior members and that they are expected to represent the best in all aspects of our paddling activities.

In order to be considered to have progressed to Class IV skills, it is recommended that a paddler be able to demonstrate the following skills. (Note: This is not an exhaustive list, but a set of guidelines to be used for paddlers to evaluate themselves and each other.)

1. Demonstrates and uses proper safety practices and principles at all times when boating.

2. Has attended all rescue-training courses normally offered and taught by the NH AMC Paddlers or equivalent.

3. Can effectively and expertly perform all common canoe/kayak strokes.

4. Can ferry, stop the motion of the boat, and perform effective eddy turns and peal outs in Class IV white water.

5. Kayaker/C1 paddlers can reliably roll in Class IV water. Open boaters can self-rescue in Class IV white water.

6. Has demonstrated the ability to stop in the middle of a Class IV rapid and render assistance to a boater in trouble.

7. Has demonstrated the ability to successfully negotiate long complex Class IV rapids, stopping in eddys, ferrying, switching riversides, scouting and planning each move from the boat, all while maintaining complete control throughout the entire rapid.

1. Gain experience in Class IV water.

2. The Ratings Committee requires that a paddler complete a minimum of 10 trips on a variety of Class IV rated water BEFORE ratings signatures are collected. Additionally, the experience is required to be accumulated over a minimum of two years and need not be in one boat type.

3. The Committee may require documentation of this experience. A copy of Trip Reports would be ideal but the Committee will accept a personal log that at a minimum lists the date, river, level, leader, boat type, organization sponsoring trip, etc.

4. In addition to NH AMC Paddlers scheduled Class IV trips, the trips may be “bootleg” or trips run by other paddling organizations recognized by NH AMC Paddlers.

5. The Committee also requires the paddler to document that they have completed all relevant training courses normally offered and taught by the NH AMC Paddlers or equivalent.

1. The Card must be signed for 4 different Class IV Rivers. The rivers run for the Ratings Card must include rivers classified as both “technical” and “big water”.

2. 3 of the “raters” must be different.

3. At least 2 of the raters must be NH AMC Paddlers. The other raters may be members of other paddling organizations recognized by NH AMC Paddlers. All raters must be classified by their organization as a Class IV (or higher) rated paddler.

4. After making a copy for their records, the paddler sends the Ratings Card and ”documentation” to the Ratings Chair and requests a Class IV rating review.

1. NH AMC Paddlers with a Class III NH AMC rating received prior to January 2000 and who have been paddling Class IV water

----or----

Paddlers who move to the area and join the membership of the NH AMC Paddlers with either the Class IV experience outlined above or a Class IV rating which was awarded by a paddling organization recognized by NH AMC Paddlers can enter the ratings process by completing a NH AMC Paddlers Ratings Card as follows:

a. The Card is signed for 2 different Class IV New England Rivers

b. The “raters” must be different.

c. The “raters” must be Class IV rated NH AMC Paddlers.

2. Once a paddler has been awarded a Class IV rating in one boat type, the paddler starts at “Ratings Card Requirements” (experience is assumed).

The Class IV rating is the highest rating awarded by the Committee and awarding a Class IV rating involves a multi-step process:

Step 1. Once a year, the Ratings Chair will arrange and chair a Special Class IV Ratings meeting to review all requests received for a Class IV rating as follows:

a. All current Class IV members of the NH AMC paddlers will be invited to a meeting.

b. To hold a meeting, at least four (4) current Class IV NH AMC Paddlers must attend.

c. The Class IV members will review each request and either recommend or reject each request. Recommendations require 2/3 of those Class IV members present agreeing to the Class IV rating.

d. A request not receiving a favorable recommendation will be sent a letter from the Ratings Chair outlining the Committee’s reasons.

Step 2. Only the Ratings Committee can award a Class IV rating. At the next regularly scheduled Ratings Committee meeting, the Committee will review all Class IV favorable recommendations received from the “Special” Ratings meeting. (The Ratings Committee cannot award a Class IV rating without the favorable recommendation of the special meeting of the Class IV paddlers). Based on a majority vote, the Ratings Committee can award or reject the recommendation. Paddlers not receiving a Class IV rating from the Committee will be sent a letter from the Ratings Chair outlining the Committee’s reasons.

1. To lead a NHAMC Paddlers white water trip, paddler must have a Leadership Rating equal to or greater than the rating of the trip

2. Any NHAMC rated paddler can co-lead a trip equal to their current rating.

1. Normally, a candidate for a Leadership rating holds a paddling rating at the level of Leadership under consideration, has attended NH AMC Paddlers Leadership training, and has co-led at least 2 trips.

Contents and HTML Copyright 1999-2007, New Hampshire AMC Paddlers, Appalachian Mountain Club. All rights reserved. Other copyrights may also apply. Click here for a copy of our privacy policy. Use of any of the information contained in this website means that you are agreeing that the NH AMC Paddlers, its trip leaders and committee chairs, and the AMC will not be held liable for any damages sustained directly or indirectly from taking part of any activities mentioned at this site. See Safety Tips.