Gear Garage Live Show | June 10th, 2025

This podcast is the audio version of the Gear Garage Live Show, where we answer submitted questions and talk all things whitewater.

Topics and links that Zach talked about in this episode

1. The Perfect Paddling Fleece
2. Answer Questions
3. Grand Canyon Flip Video

Some of the Questions that Zach covered in the Q&A section of this episode

Topic: New Middle Fork

My husband Harry is organizing a Middle Fork trip that puts in July 11. He has some questions about how the rapids in the upper section have changed since he last ran it in 2021. He was looking at your write-up on Whitewater Guidebook from 2023: Can you provide more info about the current situation?

Topic: Dynamic rescue situations and rash decisions

On a recent trip (all rafts w/ gear) we had a rower flip in the last wave of a rapid. There was a very short stretch of slack water before the next rapid. The next boat through was running tight and yelled out for the swimmer to swim to them. They very quickly got to her and pulled her from the water. The rower of the second boat then jumped out of his boat leaving the rescued swimmer to take his oars. He climbed onto the upside down boat, flipped it back over and climbed back on. It took him precious time to get the oars situated and be able to row through the next rapid, but literally came within seconds of going sideways over a nasty pour over at the very top of the rapid.

Topic: Reducing Strainer Hazards on Flooding Rivers

I live along a small continuous class II/III river in SW Colorado. Recently, runoff and flood waters have made the river fun and deep enough to run. River-wide strainers are a part of the process. Throughout the years a few of us in the local boating community have worked to remove them or inform people of their locations.

We generally approach strainers of different types on a case-by-case basis. Normally we cut manageable chunks of wood out and remove them from the river as well as the branches. We let the unsafe and unmanageable pieces go and hope it floats away (four-foot pieces).

Topic: R2 on the North Yuba

We ran two r2 boats on North Fork Yuba from Goodyear bar on the Maytag run on June 3rd, 2025. The lead boat got surfed, and we were a bit close. We pursued the swimmer. I had a question about whether we should attempt to bump our friend out of the hydraulic or try to miss him. We hit his boat, but it didn't help him much, and we almost lost our line. I thought you would have some idea about this. Usually, we would grab an Eddie and try to get a line, but a swimmer was running downstream, and we decided we better pursue him first.

Love your show and enjoy the weekly work you do to promote safety in white water rafting,

Topic: Main Salmon River

Hello Zach, I have been a big fan of your video trip reports for a long time now and I have noticed you have not made any videos on the Main Salmon River from Corn Creek to Carey Creek.

Is there a certain reason for this ? I would love to know thanks

Topic: Places to Raft

What are the top 5 states to go rafting in the U.S. and also top places in South America, Europe and Asia?