Recently Val di Femme Outdoor, which is in Cavalese, Italy, received the IRF’s Rafting Operator Accreditation (ROA). They are a small company which usually have about four guides per season, and on bigger trips they sometimes use freelance guides from around the town where they are based.
Their base is small, but functional and tidy. All clients equipment is in perfect shape. It is easy to see that the owners, Federica Simoni and Aldo Nicolodi, love what they are doing. The season is from June until September, trips in May are possible but it is not a busy month for them. The different trips are on four sections of the Avisio River that flows through the Fassa and Fiemme Valleys in the Italian Dolomites.
Sebastian, the ROA Assessor had this to say: “For me the site visit was two pleasant days in beautiful weather (and with great food) where I had the chance to get to know this little rafting company, great people and had the possibility to check out the river too. This site visit also gave me ideas how we can make the ROA process even better. Also Federica and Aldo were very keen and happy to get some feedback on their company, gear and operating procedures. We did two long working days and the two were happy to get so much information from me too (I guess they did not expect that), so they know how things are done elsewhere in the rafting world so they can keep optimizing their operation.”
The Rafting Operator Accreditation (ROA) is a credential issued by the International Rafting Federation (IRF) to operators that offer rafting guided or instructional services. The purpose of the system is to provide a means of recognizing operators that meet or exceed internationally accepted safety, environmental and quality standards. The process consists of a period of self-evaluation against published standards, a peer-review by an expert committee, and a site-visit by a trained assessor.
The other operators that have received the ROA are Cardiff International White Water (CIWW) who received the first ever accreditation. CIWW is home to the UK’s very first on-demand Olympic standard White Water Rafting and Indoor Wave facility. The second was Xavage by Xcaret who are based in Mexico and has the only white water rapids in Cancun and the whole Yucatán Peninsula, on the longest man-made course in the world. It starts in calm waters and goes increasing until it reaches class III waters.
Numerous other operators are in the process of becoming accredited – watch this space!
If you are interested in getting the ROA accreditation for your operation email Gabriel on IRF Admin.
