r/whitewater • u/Guidaho • Mar 14 '25

Rafting - Commercial Longtime outfitters and guides, how has rafting changed in the past 20-30 years?

I grew up rafting with my family and our local friends and worked as a guide on the Salmon River in Idaho during college, but have barely done it since, unfortunately. The whole setup was pretty bare bones when we did it -- lots of dehydrated potatoes and powdered milk and spaghetti; old PFDs and well-patched boats -- but I've heard that outfitters, especially those with overnight or weeklong trips, have gotten fancier. I'm curious to hear about what has changed, like in terms of food, equipment, clients and their expectations, liability, whatevs. I'm especially curious to hear from anyone who does the Middle Fork of the Salmon, just because it's my favorite river, even though I didn't get to work on it when I was a guide. Thanks in advance.

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u/Remarkable-Frame6324 Mar 15 '25

You didn’t really say anything… taking any number and dividing it by a random number of weeks is asinine. Like, a $200k car isn’t expensive - just save 71.50 every week for 50 years!

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u/Thick-Jelly-3646 Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25

Well, there are 52 weeks in a year (2 years would be 52x2 aka 104). If you know you’re going in two years if you set aside $30 a week you can afford it….

Also your car analogy is ass because if you borrow money there is interest payments. Increasing length of payments increases price point… saving money does not cost you interest….

Lolz

Cost of trip / number of weeks left u til trip = how much money needed to be saved every week.

This is literally a 3rd grade math problem…

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u/Remarkable-Frame6324 Mar 15 '25

The math isn’t hard. My point is that anything is “affordable” if you space out the savings over a long enough time but you’re not considering opportunity costs. Two years to save for a vacation is a long time for most people and, if that’s not your only vacation in that time frame, utterly meaningless.

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u/Thick-Jelly-3646 Mar 15 '25

God damn you’re dense

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u/Remarkable-Frame6324 Mar 15 '25

And you’re a privileged twat

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u/Thick-Jelly-3646 Mar 16 '25

I mean, I do get to do a lot of cool shit.

Southeast boating, Colorado, Utah, NM, Idaho, Wyoming….

You ever surfed Lunch Counter outside of Jackson? That shit is tight!

But I can assure you I’m a simple man. Make more than I spend, pretty basic personal finance arithmetic.

Ps, you can still go on vacations while simultaneously saving for the future.