Hit it! Row, row, and row!

Yesterday I took the time to head up to Smiths Ferry, Idaho to visit with an awesome friend to raft the Payette River for the first time. He was our guide at the aft of his raft for the 4 of us forward of his position in the raft as we made our way down the 9.75 mile route on the river.

Since this was my first time, there was an element of the unknown that I had to deal with and conquer. But I knew that I could fully place my trust in my friend to lead us through, based on his years of experience doing this. 

Just like a few recent experiences so far with competition by working with an awesome Coach in Mitch at Principia CrossFit, where I finished in first place in the 3 week Online Qualifier for the Men's Open Scaled division, I had to throw caution to the wind and just listen and do what I was told.

My friend at the aft with 2 huge oars (one on each side in hand), when we first boarded, laid out the rules and gave us clear and concise instructions as he was the "only captain" in the raft.

We practiced short paddling drills while wearing life vests, to make sure we were all in sync with paddling in the calmer parts of the river with his coaching and instructions, prior to taking on the more rolling and advanced rapids.

With water splashing all around, and managing to stay on the raft while being somewhat tossed around by the rapids, we had to paddle when we were instructed, with no hesitation and with as much intensity that our captain asked for. 

If we had hesitated or stopped, did not paddle as hard as we had to, or even did not paddle in sync as a team, then we were going to place ourselves in precarious situations that my friend would have to compensate for and we would have to work harder that we would have to.

We attacked the last set of rapids, including a Class 4 named Howard's Plunge, and got through them amazingly well, with everyone in sync and paddling hard. We got through hooping and hollering with huge smiles on our faces, and then most everyone got out of the raft and floated lazily in the river with our life vests on until we got to the take out point in Smith's Ferry.

All in all, we were successful in getting through all the rapids without anyone falling out, or even capsizing based on our ability to work as a team.

Our working as a team came straight from the great leadership and direction from my friend, our captain.

My lesson from all this was that even though there might be element of the unknown and unknowable and maybe even a little fear, that with experienced guidance, listening to those who are helping me and doing what I'm told is what is ultimately going to get me to be successful.

My goal is to get you to experience that kind of guidance and path to success in your life like I (we) did in our raft on the Payette.