WHITEWATER HANDBOOK

The mission of the center

Promoting healthy and active lifestyles, developing environmental stewardship, and encouraging family and civic interaction

How big is the center

Over 1,300 acres of land with 50 miles of trail and access to the Catawba River and Long Creek

The best way to help guests

W(elcome); E(ducate); S(ervice); T(hank)

Four sections of the water course

Instruction (top river), freestyle (the next on family side), wilderness (last section of family), and competition (right side)

Shoes

Must have closed toe shoes or shoes with a heel strap. All purpose shoes are available to rent for $10 at any guest services kiosk and to be picked up and returned to at the Bunker

Rafting season

From the start of March to the end of October

Family rafting

Class 1-3 rapids, reservation required, and must be 8 and older to participate. Travel through the wilderness course 3-4 times with your raft party and guide.

Adventure rafting

Class 1-4 rapids, reservation required, and must be 11 and older to participate. Travel through the wilderness course 2 times then continue to the competition course and do it 1-2 times (2 if time allows).

Big water rafting

Only available on Thursdays at 6:30pm and Fridays at 7pm. $5 reservation fee per person (no matter when the trip is reserved) and must be 16 and older to participate. High intensity trip down the competition course.

Rodeo rafting

Rafting trip with half-size raft that requires at least 2 guests (at most 4). Must be 16, pass a swim test, and be able to save yourself if you fall in the rapids. Must travel with a guide (if a single person asks, check with a supervisor first). Reservation required and it will be an additional $15 no matter what.

Reservations

All raft trips require a reservation which can only be made on-site. This time slot is issued on a first-come, first-serve basis, or guests have the option to secure an advanced time slot for a future period. Advance times are $5 per person in conjunction with a Day, Annual, or Single Activity Pass.

Ice skating

Only available from November to February for all ages. Located on the Upper Pond of the rafting channels.

Whitewater kayaking

Must have prior experience and their own gear (helmet, PFD, paddle, skirt, and kayak). One piece of gear may be rented from the River Center (if they came from far away and couldn’t bring their own gear, have them talk to the kayak supervisor, Pat Barry). Guests can bring their own personal rafts (banana boats and pack rafts).

Climbing wall

Self-guided rock climbing wall where guest wears a traditional harness that’s around the legs and waist. Guests climb on their own while connected to an automatic belay system. Weight restrictions are 45lbs to 265lbs.

Spire climbing

Land guide climbing wall and guests wear a traditional harness. Weight restrictions are 45lbs to 265lbs.

Bouldering area

Small boulder wall with rock wall grips. No land guide is present and should be supervised by a parent/guardian. For all ages and no weight restrictions.

Trail center

Helmets and bikes are available to rent on the back right hand side of Trail Center. Bike upgrades also availed for rent. Must be over 4ft tall. Trail maps available at any guest services hub for $2. No age restriction for walking.

Hawk island river course

Intermediate to advanced ropes course that stretches out across a small section over the wilderness route rafting channel. Obstacles are mostly tight ropes with hanging or static ropes to aid in crossing, can take 45mins to 1hr 30 mins to complete depending on skill. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island triple track

Ropes course with options for beginner, intermediate, and advanced options that are color coded. Series of ropes, tight ropes, tunnels, and platforms throughout the course. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island hawk jumps

60ft and 100ft tall platforms where you step off hawk tower and get lowered to the ground. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island pine zip

45ft tall platform where you climb up a telephone pole using staples in the pole. Land guides will help you through stepping off a platform where you’ll be lowered to the ground while zipping forward. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island figure 8

The longest zipline. 100ft in the air across the wilderness channel and into the trees. Then a ropes course with difficulty level from beginner to intermediate. Finally a zipline back across the wilderness channel to Hawk Island. Reservation required. Weight restriction is 70lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island double down

100ft zipline across wilderness channel and lower pond to the other side and then zip lining back to Hawk Island. Reservation required. Weight restriction is 70lbs to 265 lbs. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island obstacle challenge

Ninja warrior inspired challenges that are self-guided and unsupervised. Must go all the way around the wilderness channel pathway to access. Open to all ages. Guests will wear a full body harness and a UIAA helmet.

Hawk island deep water solo

3 different angles of rock walls above a 20ft deep pool of water unattached to any belay systems. Must be 8 or older with proficient swimming skills.

Canyon crossing

Combination of zipline and 5 leg obstacle ropes course. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Canyon spur

6 leg advanced ropes course. Requires the most physical ability due to pull up and tight rope elements. Must be able to do a pull up. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Canyon zip

2 200ft long zip lines across and back over the canyon 20ft in the air. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Canyon rim zips

2 ziplines with accompanying rope bridges that span the entire width of the Canyon area, totaling 800ft. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Ridge adventure course

Ropes consisting of series of platforms, tight ropes, and obstacles. Considered an intermediate ropes course. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Ridge course

Ropes course consisting of series of platforms and obstacles with ascends and descends via cargo net. The outside route consists of 6 challenges at levels 2-3 in difficulty. Inside route consists of 5 challenges at levels 3-5 in difficulty. Considered a beginner ropes course. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Ridge traverse

Intermediate to advanced ropes course consisting of platforms, tight ropes, and obstacles. Can take roughly 45mins to 1hr depending on skill. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Ridge jump

30ft tall platform where you climb a telephone pole using staples in the pole and get gently lowered to the ground. Considered beginner level of all the jumps. Guests will be in a full body harness. Weight restriction is 45lbs to 265 lbs.

Ridge challenge

Ground level ropes course obstacles. Unsupervised but must have a day pass. Open to all ages. Guests will be in a full body harness.

Flat water kayaking

On the Catawba River. Single and tandem (2 people) available. Must be 8 to single kayak and 4 to tandem kayak.

Flat water standup paddle boarding (SUP)

Paddle boarding on the Catawba River. Must be 8 or older.

South ridge slow flow yoga

A slower paced Vinyasa Flow for beginner to intermediate yogis. Good for de-stressing and relaxing.

South ridge open flow yoga

An intermediate Vinyasa Flow that’s challenging yet leaves you feeling fresh and invigorated.

South ridge fun flow yoga

A Vinyasa Flow class with an emphasis on having fun and moving like yourself. Challenging postures are offered in addition to modifications to engage multiple skill levels.

South ridge sup flow yoga

Yoga on stand-up paddle boards on the Catawba River. Activity pass and advance reservation required for SUP equipment and/ or anchor. Available the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month from May to September. Must be 14 or older.

Adult annual pass

$149 per person. Must be 10 or older.

Adult day pass

$79 per person. Must be 10 or older.

Youth day pass

$69 per person. Must be 9 or younger.

Whitewater rafting (SAP)

$59 per person

Whitewater kayaking and SUP (SAP)

$59 per person

Flat water kayaking and SUP (SAP)

$39 per person

Deep water solo (SAP)

$35 per person

Mountain biking (SAP)

$35 per person

Climbing

$25 per person

Ice skating

$25 per person

Annual pass and day passes

Include access to all activities excluding upgrades (double down, figure 8, rodeo/big water rafting)

Single activity passes (SAP)

Not available for ziplines or ropes courses. Day pass would need to be purchased.

Off-leash (SAP)

$10 a day/$20 per month. Dogs must be 4 months or older and vaccinated.

Radio communication

Channel 1 is guest services, channel 8 is group sales, channel 14 is outdoor school/camps, channel 13 is emergency. Be precise and professional when communicating. If the topic is too sensitive, use the landline.

Breaks

Clock out for every break. Every break under 15 minutes is paid. Always ask the lead/manager to take a break. If you eat, must be in the break room or another area that isn’t guest-facing. The break room is fishbowl (8934#)

Alcohol sales

2-drink max per guest at one time. Always check ID.

Bunker

For storage and rentals. All-purpose shoes ($12), climbing shoes ($7), splash jacket ($6), wetsuit ($17), wet gear package ($23), yoga mat ($5), rental bins ($15), locker tokens ($5)

Retail

Outfitter’s Store. Responsible for selling clothes, food and drink, selling passes to guests.

River Center

Where most of rafting pass sales are made and ice skating hub during the winter. Sells passes, storage/rental items, and retails

Shark tank

Admissions booth that is strictly a pass sale location

Guest services hub

Last location to open. Located in the center of the facility and offers pass sales and drinks.

Humanity/ADP

Scheduling and Human Resources software. Use ADP (clock-in, show more actions, transfer, position, job site, save) to clock-in and clock-out.

How to sell a pass

Welcome guest, collect/enter waivers, select desired activities, suggest storage, ensure guest meets clothing requirements, explain the weather policy, take payment, put their wristband on and hand them their receipt.

Weather policy

Some activities may not operate based on weather conditions. Check conditions before selling any passes. Refunds and rain checks are not offered.

Sales system (left side)

These buttons contain any item/pass you’ll be selling. Color coded for easy identification.

Sales system (right side)

Where the active sale lives. The sum will appear in the box below.

Sales system (icons)

Represents different function to finalize sales, search passes, and more.

Sales functions

Recall (recall any saved/online sales or reservations); Clear (clear a sale from the sales screen - will not delete a saved sale); Guest Lookup (lookup a guest’s annual pass, purchase history, and more); Gift Card Balance (checks the balance of an adventure card); Tools (contains a menu for many higher-level sales tools); Finalize (finalizes an active sale. Used for cash transactions and can be used to split sales); Reprint (can reprint receipts from previous sales); Credit Pinpad (used to finalize credit/debit/apple/google pay transactions); Logout (logout of sales)

Waiver Plug-in

Insert name, date of birth, then everything else. Click search after typing in their name to check if they’re already in the system. If they are, the rest of the info will appear on the waiver. If not, input their info and click save. If a box appears asking about missing information, click correct to go to the liability form page, then hit manual accept followed by save.

Annual pass check-in

Select passes then annual day redeemed a (10 and up), redeemed b (9 and under), or employee. Select validate then guest lookup and search with their name/birthdate. Select the correct pass, add it to the sale, then click save and return to the main screen. Press advanced lookup for any additional guests that need to be added

Fingerprint scanner

Press F11 and have them press their finger flat on the scanner. Make sure the pass that appears is correct. To add their fingerprint, find their profile through guest lookup and click on their active annual pass. Select modify on the dialogue box and press fingerprint to collect. A quality fingerprint score must be at least 6/10. The required cash-out code at the bottom of their fingerprint should be their birth year. Once finished, click save then return to the main screen to test.

Renting/storage

When renting, collecting the guest’s phone number (for contact) and credit card number (to charge). Guests must sign the rental contract on the receipt which the employee will collect for the rest of the day. Storage works similarly.

Timeslots

Guest must already have a pass on their wrist/purchasing a pass. There are four time slots: figure 8 ($10 upgrade to day pass), double down ($10 upgrade to day pass), rodeo rafting ($15 upgrade to rafting or day pass. Available by request only and requires swim test), and rafting (next available time slot is included in rafting or day pass. $5 reservation fee per person for any other time slot. Most popular). If purchasing a day pass, ask if interested in rafting because it is included in the pass. Always make sure the date at the top of the sale is set to the current day. Open timeslots have green and will state the number of open spots (check how many are in the group). Closed timeslots are red and booked full. Unavailable timeslots are grey and can be ignored. Once time is chosen, add that guest to a pass. If booked for the next available rafting trip, select special and walk up raft to remove the $5 charge. If rafting, ask if participating in family or adventure.

Next available raft trip

Any raft trip within 45 minutes or the time slot is the next trip that the guest’s entire group can fit and make on time. Take into consideration if they need to receive rental items/storage.

Booking info

Zipline timeslots can only be booked day of; rafting can be booked ahead of time but there’s a $5 reservation fee; you can click a time slot to see everyone who’s on it; if multiple people are purchasing passes separately, encourage them to book under a single timeslot; while you need to link guests individually to their passes, don‘t do this for timeslots. Pick one guest instead to be the guest ties to the reservations to make the rafting check-in time easier; Zipline bookings are active from the time set plus 30mins. Unlike , they don’t need to be there at the start but can check in within the timeframe.

Recall/online sales

Passes in the system, a reservation, or online purchased passes can be accessed through the recall button. All online sales can be found with a confirmation number then pressing ok. In certain cases, you may have to press the finalized and researched buttons so they say include and yes which will show more options if the sale has already been checked in. Once the sale has been recalled, the first thing to do is correct the date of the sale. To change the date, look at the date in the green box at the top of the main sales screen and change it to the current day. Once corrected, the correct timeslots for the day will appear. To recall other sales, use the information a guest has.

Adventure card

To check the balance of a gist cars, press gift card balance and swipe the card in the card swipe. Always check the balance of a gift card before loading it. For a new card, select cancel then one of the card options the guest wants. For an empty card, select reload then select swipe card and swipe the card. From here, take payment then the sale is completed. The final step is to check the balance of the card once again.

Paying with a gift card

If the gift card has a greater value than or equal to the cost of the sale: on the main sales screen, swipe the gift card on the sales computer. This will bring up the finalize screen with the total amount in the box at the top. Press ok and finalize the sale. Return the card to the guest if it still has a balance after the sale. If the gift card has a lesser value: on the main sales screen, swipe the gift card on the sales computer. Then, change the value in the top box to the value on the gift card and will only charge it the amount it can handle. From here, select the next payment option and charge it accordingly. Collect the payment and usual and finalize the sale. Contact a manager if trying to pay with more than one gift card.

Making reservations

Click the button on the main sales screen labeled create new reservation header. Then input guest information. Press ok to return to the main screen and you’ll see a reservation number. Let the guest know this can be used to recall the sale, or their name. Once the items have been added to the guest’s sale, click save to store the items for the future. Clicking save instead of finalize will not require payment at the current moment.

Lost and found

Login to Chargerback: Partner ID - 15408; User ID - front.desk; Password - Usnwc12345. Enter the items and fill out as much information as possible. Lost items typically go to the Fishbowl, Outfitter’s safe, or the River Center.

Emergency situations

Analyze the situation, categorize the seriousness, and engage the necessary services (response team, management, etc.)

Parking pass

$12 a dar/ $40 a month