How Many People Does it Take to Run a Whitewater Rafting Trip?

When guests reflect on their favorite part of their river rafting adventure, their highlights always include the epic whitewater and beautiful scenery. More often than not, their river guide also ranks pretty high on that list. All-Outdoors guides are the face of our rafting company: They greet you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as you check in for your trip, and they are with you until you pull out of the parking lot. AO guides take pride in their work, knowledge, and their wealth of dad jokes, making it easy to bond with them and remember them fondly. 

In addition to our charismatic guide staff, there are many more hands at work behind the scenes. From the first time you view our website to the time you finish your trip, do you know how many people worked to make your trip run smoothly?

Your Rafting Adventure Begins Online

For many of our guests, the rafting adventure begins with a search engine query and a visit to our website. Our web and marketing team work year-round to make sure we are providing the most accurate and helpful information to our guests and followers. All-Outdoors is regarded as an authority on California whitewater rafting, and our team works hard to maintain that reputation. 

Our marketing team manages all AO social media platforms as well. Our resident videographer and photographer (and member of AO founding family, the Armstrongs) creates daily content for all of our followers, and bi-monthly “Fresh From the River” clips highlighting some cool whitewater action from the last week. Some of the videos we share are quick glimpses of a recent trip, while others are more detailed and produced rundowns of a trip or a showcase of our favorite rapids on each river. Every time you see a post or new video, it is thanks to our awesome marketing team. 

The All-Outdoors eNews is published twice a month and sent to all subscribers to keep them up to date about current conditions, upcoming promotions, and most of all to share content from our 10 California rivers. See what the hype is about and subscribe to the AO eNews.

“Thank you for calling All-Outdoors!”

Our web team works hand in hand with our friendly staff of California Rafting Consultants. Together, they make sure that you, our guests, are able to see all of your options and get set up with the perfect trip for the experience you are hoping for. 

While our main rafting season runs from April to October, our Rafting Consultants are available year-round to help you at any point of your planning process. California Rafting Consultants have rafted on each of our 10 California rivers in person, meaning that they have seen and experienced the trip you are interested in. If you called AO for help at any point in your planning process, you have worked with a Consultant. Can’t pick which river is the best fit? Not sure what to wear or bring? Need some help gathering your friends or family? Give us a call or start a Live Chat, we love talking about whitewater and helping find the perfect fit for your group.

Order of Operations

So your trip is booked – Awesome! Reservations are closely monitored in order to accommodate any last-minute changes or additions. Once our headcounts are finalized, the booking details are given to our operations staff who then put the wheels in motion. Our Operations Director coordinates the “boots on the ground” team and mobilizes our fleet of boats, vehicles, drivers, and guides. Did you have a guide scheduled for your trip? Did a driver pick you up from take-out? You can thank our Operations Director for making that happen. 

Our Operations Director never works alone in our efforts to set up our rafting adventures. Each river has a River Manager who works as a liaison between operations and the guide staff. The River Manager is responsible for keeping trips organized and running smoothly day-of. They delegate tasks and roles to each guide working the trip. On any given river, they are in charge.

Gear Up!

With the volume of trips All-Outdoors puts on every season, our gear always gets a lot of use and even more love. We invest in high-quality gear that can last a long time when taken care of properly. Our River Center is home to what we lovingly call the “Boat Barn,” where our rafts are stored when they are not on the water, and where any and all maintenance can be performed. Rafts, oars, paddles, and more are tended to by senior guides with specialized training. Rafting equipment maintenance continues year-round, even in the cold and snow when rafting is the last thing on anyone’s mind! Thanks to the hard work of our staff, we can rely on high-performing, well-maintained equipment to provide our guests with the best possible experience on their river trip!

Buses, Vans, Trucks, Oh My!

Just as our whitewater gear requires attention, so do our vehicles. Most guests can relate to the challenge of keeping up with vehicle maintenance. Imagine being in charge of a whole fleet of buses! Our in-house mechanics perform routine maintenance and are always on standby, ready to jump to the rescue in case of any issues. Have you ever done an oil change on a boom truck?! 

All AO drivers have to pass several tests in order to be checked off to drive guests to and from the river. This job goes past having a commercial driver’s license and requires a lot of skilled maneuvering along narrow mountain roads. Our drivers need to master these winding back roads in not just a bus, but a bus towing a trailer piled high with boats! We literally could not run our rafting trips without their skills and patience.

Riverside Dining, Elevated

Spending a day or more on the river in the wilderness doesn’t mean you have to settle for pre-packaged sandwiches or basic backpacker food. Quite the contrary; when All-Outdoors does food, we do it right. Our food-room staff purchases high-quality food from local suppliers and carefully packs meals for our rafting trips, keeping in mind our guests’ dietary restrictions, preferences, and allergies. This task ranges from packing lunch for a small 1-Day rafting trip, to an all-inclusive 3-Day wilderness trip for over 60 guests! Our food prep and packing staff are a vital part of making sure everyone has a positive experience on their adventure. 

Once the food is packed and guests are ready to go for a day of whitewater action, it then becomes the guide’s responsibility to complete any final food prep and to serve guests. This could mean arranging a beautiful spread of fresh veggies for lunch, or maybe grilling some steak on the riverside, or even waking up extra early to have hot coffee ready for guests on a multi-day trip.

The Armstrong Family

And of course, none of this would be possible without the founding family, the Armstrongs. Since 1962, this family has been dedicated to connecting people with the outdoors and sharing their passion for whitewater adventures. The landscape of whitewater rafting in California would not be the same without the groundwork laid by our founder, George Armstrong, who remains actively involved with the company well into his 90’s! His legacy continues through the passion and persistence of other family members, most notably his youngest son, Scott, who has played a key role in guiding the company through its evolution.

There are dozens of other important roles at AO that we have not addressed, but our blog posts can only be so long… From graphic design, to financial management, to human resources, every role in our river family plays a part in making your rafting trip a smooth and memorable experience.

Reily Schultz

Reily is a Gold Country native. She graduated from Willamette University with a degree in Studio Art and a minor in Gender Studies and Psychology. She joined the All-Outdoors family in the spring of 2022, working as a California Rafting Consultant and a member of the marketing team. Her favorite All-Outdoors itinerary is the multi-day Tuolumne rafting trip. Reily is an avid artist, outdoors-woman, and purr-fessional cat snuggler.