White Water Rafting

“On fast water, there’s no time to wonder if your crew heard you.”

Jess is a lead guide at a white water rafting centre in the Scottish Highlands, running commercial trips on some of the UK’s most challenging grade river sections. Her team of guides manages groups of paying customers — often complete beginners — through water that demands split-second coordination and absolute clarity of instruction.

Before DigamE, in-raft communication between guides relied on shouting over the noise of the water, a method that worked reasonably well within a single raft but broke down entirely when Jess needed to coordinate with her co-guides running other rafts or positioned on the bank at safety points downstream. A guide at a critical drop could see a problem developing in the raft coming towards them, but had no reliable way of warning the raft guide in time to make a difference.

Safety briefings between guides before a run also had to happen on the riverbank, with no ability to update the plan once the group was on the water. If conditions changed mid-run — a strainer, a change in flow from upstream releases, a customer in difficulty — each guide was effectively working in isolation, relying on visual signals that were often lost in the chaos of moving water.

Jess introduced DigamE after a near-miss incident where two rafts entered a technical section in quick succession without either guide being aware of the other’s position. With all guides now on a shared MESH channel, the entire team operates as a single coordinated unit for the first time.

Bank-based safety guides can call clear or hold before each group approaches a critical section. Raft guides can report a swimmer or a wrap and get immediate backup without the delay of waiting for visual contact. During multi-raft days, the lead guide can brief the whole team simultaneously, adjust plans on the move, and maintain oversight of the entire operation from wherever they are on the river.

“White water moves fast and it doesn’t forgive hesitation. Knowing my whole team can hear me and I can hear them — in real time, hands free — has genuinely changed how safe our operation is. It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s the most important piece of safety kit we’ve added in years.”

The centre now equips every guide with a DigamE unit as part of their standard kit and has begun recommending them to other operators through their regional guiding network.