While the end of the season is always bittersweet – tears were definitely shed as members of our team began to depart for the winter – we are already getting excited to see what next year brings (early plans for 2025 river trips are already being made!)
Below are some of our favorite memories and highlights from an epic 2024 season!
Started the Season with Our Annual ACA Kayak Instructor Course hosted by Heather Herbeck
This multi-day training course leads to certification as a whitewater kayak instructor by the American Canoe Association. Some of our kayak team members were even able to join.
Carried Out a lot of Awesome River Rescue Courses this Year!
With the addition of our new instructor Marcus Tarzian, this season we once again offered numerous rescue courses for various private boaters and organizations. We were especially super excited to partner with Inter-Fluve, a nationally recognized river restoration company. During our one-day rescue course with the Hood River based team, we taught the fundamentals of river safety, including what to do if you find yourself swimming down river and how to avoid downed trees.
Kicked Off the Owyhee Season
We once again headed east for a few weeks on the Owyhee River. This season we ran four trips as well as one 4-day guide school teaching participants to row and plan a multi-day trip. Some major highlights included epic wildflowers, beautiful weather, awesome company and only one major vehicle breakdown 🙂
Ran Some Great Spring Rafting Trips on the Klickitat, Wind, and Hood Rivers
2024 gave us a short but sweet spring season! These three rivers are always a favorite for our guides as they get to start off their rafting season with a bang!
Partnered with First Descents – Celebrating a 15-year Partnership!
An annual highlight for the Wet Planet kayak school and for each of our instructors are the camps we host each summer we host each summer for this incredible non-profit organization First Descents. Starting in late May and running for 6 weeks, we hosted just over 100 cancer fighters for the 15th year in a row. We absolutely love working with First Descents as it gives so much meaning to what we do.
First Husum Runs of the Season
Opening day of Husum Falls on the White Salmon River is always exciting – and this year didn’t disappoint! Our first rafting trips over the highest commercially rafted waterfall in North America began on July 9th and we have been running it ever since. This season brought loads of smiles and cheers of excitement, as well as some flips, spills, and swims. Check out some of the best Husum reactions below.
Ran a New Packrafting Course
While rafting and kayaking might be Wet Planet’s core offerings, we are always game to create custom whitewater courses and adventures. This season a group of adventure racers came to us with the idea of creating a custom packrafting and rescue course. Not only was this a great opportunity to learn new skills, but it helped us begin ideating on other avenues we might pursue.
Seriously, if you have a whitewater dream, we can likely help you make it real.
Had Another Epic Main Salmon Season
From our annual teenage camp with Wilderness Adventures, family reunions, and participants learning to row their own boat, to whitewater kayakers embarking on their first multi-day expedition, we had a great season in Idaho! Our dream team of guides, including Mama Arwen who makes sure no one starves (far from it) created another summer filled with memories of a lifetime. The balmy weather, fun groups, and very little wildfire smoke made it easy. We even got to feed the pigs this year!
Hired the Highest Number of Female Guides
We are especially stoked and proud of this. This season we made a conscious and concerted effort to hire more female guides, and man what an epic crew we were able to assemble. Our women are not only absolute badasses in their own ways, but they are also highly skilled, incredibly reliable and downright great (and funny) people and professionals on the river.
Started the Green Team
At Wet Planet, it is central to our ethics to operate in an environmentally, socially, and economically responsible manner. We always aim to conduct our business sustainably in order to allow future generations to enjoy the river canyons that we love and work on. Reviving old initiatives – we created the Green Team with the goal of continuing our sustainability efforts this season, most notably by organizing river clean-ups on the Klickitat and White Salmon rivers. While we are just getting started, we’re stoked to continue growing this team and planning even more sustainable initiatives.
2024 was a really fantastic season in many ways here at Wet Planet! Our fantastic team really stepped up to create a professional, safe, and fun environment for our guests and ourselves.
Thank you all for being part of a really great 2024 season – you are the best and we appreciate each and every one of you!
~ Todd, Jaco, Steve, Kali, and the entire Wet Planet Team!
