Dana Blanc Interview, California

August 4, 2010.

Dana Blanc is one of our most requested guides in California. Thankfully, I was able to catch up with him to pick his brain about his passion for rivers and what keeps him hanging around. Over the past 9 years, Blanc has also guided in, Wyoming, Texas and Alaska.

He’s an Angels Camp local and is quite fond of the outdoor life in the foothills. Blanc works at Bear Valley Ski Resort in the winter and enjoys playing guitar and bass in his free time, and lives for the rush of never knowing what the next amazing experience will be or when it will come.

Click here to view the video version of this interview.

1. What is it that makes California rafting so special?

I think because of the variety of rivers that you can get. I mean, you can get anything from San Francisco, you can run the Tuolumne Class IV or the South Fork a really mellow Class III, you can have multi-days, you can have waterfalls, you can have big rivers, steep rivers, you can have anything you want in California so I think variety is what makes California rafting so special.

2. What is your most memorable guiding experience?

One of my most memorable experiences happened to me up on the Rogue River in Oregon, and it was a gentleman who has spent most of his life outside, had done first ascents of mountains, and had contributed to the outdoor society a lot. His body had turned on him, he wasn’t in the best of shape, he had Alzheimer’s, but we got to the bottom of Mule Creek Canyon and he looked up at Pinnacle Peak. If any of the guides had said you can go climb that mountain, he would’ve gotten out of the boat and climbed it. It’s really inspiring to see that on some river trips.

3. We hear you were born and raised in Angels Camp. What keeps you coming back after all these years?

The reason I come back to Angels Camp is because I like the people around here. They’re very, very nice, calm headed, they’ve seen a lot of things, been a lot of places so the reason I come back is for the people. Otherwise, I’d probably live somewhere colder [laughs].

4. What’s the trick to successfully surf a rapid?

The trick to successfully surfing a rapid starts with convincing your crew that it’s a good idea. After that, I think a successful surf is when everyone is still in the boat at the bottom and they say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do that with a raft!’ so that’s how you successfully surf a rapid. You gotta go in slow, and make the river take over most of the work.

5. We understand you love to play guitar and bass, which is your favorite and why? Do you have a favorite song to perform?

My favorite is bass, I love playing the low end, I love playing with other people, but I also like guitar. I like guitar because I can take it on the river every so often. As far as my favorite song to play and perform, it would probably be…JAMES [James Rodger, California/Oregon Regional Manager, jumps across screen]…anything I get to play with Eli Helvey. Eli is really the talented guitar player around so anytime I get to play with Eli that’s my favorite time to perform, so he plays, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and I think that’s my favorite song to play because I get to play with Eli.

6. What do you enjoy most about your work?

The thing I enjoy most about whitewater rafting is whitewater. I love the white water, I love the big rivers, I love seeing the different fluctuations of different flows – that’s my personal favorite, the river. I also love the big, epic scenery, the granger of it all, the tradition, actually putting the raft on the river and going rafting.

7. What can’t you leave home without?

The thing I can leave home without – and this is more recent – is this necklace right here [shows necklace]. This is a Moire symbol, which symbolizes safe passage through water. Guides are incredibly superstitious so without this I’m not sure I could keep my boat upright anymore [laughs].

8. What do you do when you’re not busy being a river guide?

I generally like to go to the mountains, I really like to go up to Bear Valley – it’s a place I work at in the wintertime, get to ski around all winter and in the summer I can get up and go hike. It’s nice to get out of the heat a little bit, it’s hot being a river guide so sometimes going up to Bear Valley is a great solution for us, or mountain biking or skiing.

9. We hear you love to read non-fiction, what is your favorite book and why?

My favorite nonfiction book is written by a guy named Lawrence Gonzales and it’s called, "Deep Survival," reason being because he goes over why people do what they do when they go under a little bit of stress, especially in the outdoors. I’ve found it very, very useful in my rafting career to be able to figure out what is going on in some people’s heads as we start to get into some bigger water. So that’s my favorite book, "Deep Survival," I recommend it; Amazon it.

10. Describe your ideal river trip.

Anytime we go out and we have a great, great time – whenever we go out and everybody gets outside for maybe the first time, or maybe goes camping for the first time, or are surprised at how great camping can be for the first time. I think that’s something that creates an ideal river trip, beyond that you can be anywhere in the world and so long as that happens it’s a great thing. It also has to have good food, if it doesn’t have good food, count it out, so that’s why I guide for O.A.R.S.

Click the play button below to watch the video interview.