East Coast guide here, been commercial on a few rivers and always been paddle guiding rarely see oar rigs out here.

Anyway I am looking to make my way out west soon and learn oar rig guiding and some new rivers. I wanted to start this to ask some people who work or have worked out west about the companies and rivers they recommend or don’t recommend and where might be the best places to go for someone to learn oar rig guiding while still not needing to go through a whole guide school program.

I also wanted to offer up for East coast guides to do the same with river and company recommendations out here, I know I’ve had both good and bad experiences with different companies and rivers so I’m sure this would be helpful to anyone who is changing regions, rivers, companies, or anyone who is planning to train for their first time.

I’ll start off by recommending the Ocoee, Chattooga, New, and Gauley. In my experience the Ocoee and New are great for people who want to train and for those who keep coming back they’re both solid runs with plenty of fun lines and surfs. Chattooga I like for section four but section three is lackluster which is why I don’t see it being awesome for first years training. Gauley is of course bigger water which is a good step up from the smaller shallower east coast rivers.

Excited to hear everyone’s opinions and experiences!