A lesson in Leadership
My only instructions to my two friends at the start of the trip were, “I do not give commands when I row”. I am the captain. I have 30 years whitewater experience at this point while they do not. What I said was, “if we are going to hit a big wave, reach out together and stab the wave”.
That is what these two warriors did. They worked together and the only reason we did not flip the boat (which would have been fine if we did, not class 5) was the team working together. I empowered the two new people who had not paddled like this in this rapid in this way before. We were not a crack team who had worked together before. We were (are) friends who decided to go on an adventure together.
I empowered these two with knowledge and they saved us and the boat from flipping. This is Zoom Flume on Browns canyon on the Upper Arkansas River near Buena Vista Colorado. This trip was June 3, 2017
