Why it works
- The life jacket is buoyancy, not decoration. It is fitted at the base and worn for the whole run, including the calm stretches where people are tempted to loosen it.
- A professional guide sits in your raft and steers it. Nobody is navigating on their own.
- A helmet, paddle and wetsuit come with it, all included.
- The swim stops are optional. Nobody is put in the water who does not want to be in it.
Tell us, and tell the guide
This is the one thing we ask. Put it in the message box when you book, or send it on WhatsApp: "one of us cannot swim". It changes nothing about whether you can come and everything about where the guide seats you.
Say it again at the base if you can. Briefings are given to a boat, not to a list, and the guide who ends up in your raft may not be the person who read your booking.
What happens if someone goes in
It happens on some boats and not others, and the guides are trained for exactly this: the jacket brings you up, and the guide gets you back to the raft. That is the whole reason the jacket does not come off in the flat sections.
Being unable to swim does not change that sequence. What changes it is a jacket that was loosened because somebody felt too warm.
Where we stop being reassuring
Not being able to swim is fine. Being afraid of water is a different question, and only you can answer it — a raft is not a place to discover that halfway down a canyon, and we would rather you booked something else than found out there.
And the medical list still applies to everyone: not recommended in pregnancy, or with back, neck or heart problems, or after recent surgery.