Women and Gender Expansive

SWIFTWATER RESCUE Course

Karyna Todd (she/her) and Jordan Taylor (he/they) co-instructors

Fee $250, no prerequisite.

May 24-25, 2025.

Potomac River near Washington DC.

for questions or to book: jordantaylorriver@gmail.com

Why Swiftwater Rescue?

When the vibe changes on the river, will you be ready?! With preparation you can be the one to spread calm and coordinate effective rescue efforts for your team.

Never taken a Swiftwater Rescue Course? Has it been a while? Didn’t like how you froze up when your friend had a bad swim? Learn or refresh the foundations of prevention and response for when the vibe turns from fun to scary. Be the one who helps your crew turn a bad day into a win.

More importantly, training rescue is fun. It is a very direct form of play to swim in the same currents that bring us joy in our boats. And ropes? Some of the coolest rescue tools ever invented and when used properly they function like swings!

Why Women?

Contemporary all-gender training environments can tend to favor those who step forward more readily. This course is designed to cultivate a training environment where women in particular are invited to train without also needing to consistently navigate their training opportunities with or around men, who have historically and currently been welcomed for being assertive.

Why Gender Expansive?

In our invitation to women we are interested in also extending a specific invitation to people who are transgender, and also to individuals who are genderfluid or non binary, or who simply don't quite fit into gender defined as a binary. We are extending this invitation explicitly for the same reasons stated above in "Why Women?"—to cultivate a training environment designed with women and genderqueer individuals in mind.

What this course is, and is not:

This is still first, foremost and above all else a course about helping people on the river on what might be their hardest day. The desire to offer this as a gender specific space comes from decades of teaching these techniques, and observing or managing social dynamics that at default tend to over prioritize vocal men, including ones that are sweet, kind and well meaning. While we will make some space for reflection throughout the weekend, it is our intention to focus that reflection on ways gender shows up in prevention and rescue. This is not a two day gender studies course. It is not intended as an "anti-man" space. Lastly, much of this curriculum was initially designed and taught by the first few generations of raft guides and instructors and there are still techniques where the default teaching model is oriented toward body types typically associated with men. Our interest is in presenting and developing the ACA rescue curriculum in ways that do not assume this as a default "with alternate options for others". We will start by centering ourselves as the default.

for questions or to book: jordantaylorriver@gmail.com

BADASS Women of SWR