With the IRF’s Guide Training and Education System growing so strongly at the moment a new committee has recently been appointed to help take the system to even higher standards.

This new committee is being led by Gaspar Goncz who is the Chair of the GTE Com and has been driving the system since May 2009 and is based in Hungary. New energy has recently come into the system from Mark Hirst who is an IRF Assessor, an advanced Rescue 3 training provider and First Aid Instructor. Mark has taken up the role as Secretary of the GTE and is uniquely positioned in that he travels far and wide therefore gaining knowledge of the rafting industry in all corners of the world which is necessary when working with a system like the IRF’s. He is based in Finland.

The other committee members are Joe Willie Jones who is also the IRF President and based in Chile, Pieter Bekkers who is on the IRF BOD and based in the Netherlands, Andrew Kellett based in South Africa, Gabriel Cote Vailquette based in Canada, Eneko Yarza based in the Basque region, Neil Newton Taylor based in Austria, Alex (Pongo) Baker based in Costa Rica, Nim Bahadur Magar based in Nepal, Tim Marshall based in New Zealand, and Graham (Fredi) Maifredi based in Australia. Behind the scenes we have Raewyn Larcombe who has been administrator to the system for many years (contact).

The new energy in the GTE System has taken it to new levels and we expect it to become even more dominant world wide and we hope to see it being accepted by even more governments as the official system for all river guides.