Dates: Monday May 19th through Friday May 30th ( Monday through Friday-10 days )

Location: Performance Tours Buena Vista office - 115 Gregg drive- Buena Vista - Most of the training will be on the Brown�s Canyon section of the Arkansas River.

Cost: $ 375.00 A $ 225.00 deposit must be received to hold your spot. We have a limited number of training spots available and can only confirm holding a spot upon receipt of the deposit on a first come first served basis. The $ 150.00 balance would be due April 21st, unless alternative arrangements have been made. The cost includes lunches on training days.

Guide Instructors: Jim Crane and Stu Schaffer. They have a vast amount of river experience and have been involved in the Performance Tours training program for the past 10 years. Together they have developed a very comprehensive training program. Upon successful completion of the certification program our trainees/guides generally have better river skills and rescue skills than guides from most other training programs. We feel that there is no better training program on the river.

Jim Crane: Certified river guide since 1991. Certified guide Instructor since 1994. Swiftwater Rescue Technician. Wilderness First Responder. River operations manager for Performance Tours. Certified Class V guide. Adventure guide in Costa Rica. Jim has worldwide guiding experience. His extensive river, medical and outdoor knowledge, along with strong communication and teaching skills has made him one of the best guides and instructors around anywhere.

Stu Schaffer: Certified river guide since 1976. Certified guide instructor since 1979. Swiftwater Rescue Technician. Emergency Medical Technician. Selected to represent Team USA in the world rafting championships. Ex Ski Patroller and snowcat guide. Certified class V guide and kayaker. Stu also has worldwide guiding experience. Stu is probably the most experienced guide on the Arkansas River. His vast river, medical and outdoor knowledge have made him one of the top guides and instructors in the field.

Application process and qualifications: We feel that if you are somewhat athletic and outdoor oriented we can teach you the skills required to guide commercially. Guides need to have very strong interpersonal relation skills. Entertaining the guests is an extremely important component of the job.

Step 1.) Send or E-mail Performance Tours an application or letter of interest (there is a form on our website).

Step 2.) Send off your $ 225.00 deposit check to Performance Tours, P.O. Box 7305, Breckenridge, Co. 80424. This will confirm your training spot. Upon receipt we will contact you and send you all of the information you need regarding the training program.

Step 3.) *Optional. Set up an interview. We will start conducting interviews on March 10th and conclude when our program is full. You can secure a training spot without an interview by sending off a deposit. The advantage to interviewing with us is that we will offer a few more than _ of the available summertime guiding positions to the best candidates that interview with us prior to training( employment offered in advance). If you have strong qualifications, and interviewed well, you may be offered employment within 1-2 days of your interview. The remaining guiding positions available will be offered to the best candidates that successfully complete the certification/training program.

* We realize that some applicants may only want to go through the certification/training program if they are offered employment in advance, based on their interview, and therefore don't want to send in a deposit . There is not a problem with interviewing without sending in a deposit, and waiting to find out the results of the interview before deciding what you want to do.

We anticipate having approximately 15 new guide positions available and training 20 applicants. We anticipate offering 8-10 guiding positions in advance based on interviews. This leaves 5-7 post training guiding positions available for the best remaining applicants.

We encourage interviews as your best opportunity to be offered employment. There is no downside to interviewing, as it provides you with 2 opportunities for a job offer versus 1. We will conduct some phone interviews if you are unable to arrange an interview in person. Phone interviews will be conducted between 10 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. starting in early March.

Upon successful completion of the training program, along with a successful qualifying run, you will become a certified river guide in the State of Colorado. All river guides in Colorado are required by law to maintain current First - Aid and CPR certification. This is not offered as part of our guide certification program. We can inform you of classes being offered through different institutions and instructors in Colorado.

Performance Tours is going into our 18th season. We are a very well established outfitter with an excellent safety record and an excellent reputation within the industry. We are one of the larger outfitters in the State and we keep our staff very busy once we get into the season.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at 1-800-328-7238 or raft@performancetours.com