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Early 1970s guide certification cards

Status: Live River
By: Larry Orman
Date: 1974
Description:

After rafting started booming as an outdoor sport in the early 1970s, pressure started to mount for some standardization of guide training, to ensure safety. The Pacific River Outfitters Association (PROA), which was mainly the larger more established outfitters (another issue, whether new outfitters could come in or not…), took on trying to create a licensing program in 1974, partly due to pressure from government agencies. The licensing included a written test and an on-river test of rafting skills. If you passed, you got to get a great picture taken (ARTA guides – Larry Orman, on top, was one of many who went over to the historic town of Columbia which let you dress up in period clothes and get a photo taken; Steve Tichenor is at bottom in plain clothes) and were issued these plastic covered license cards. The whole system ended up being too cumbersome to manage and was abandoned at the end of the 1974 season, leaving companies back to certifying their own guides. See also this other post from Ty Childress .

Keywords: Guides
Format: Other Image
Collection: Larry Orman's Collection

Date uploaded: Apr 22, 2021
Date last modified: Sep 3, 2023