River Heroes: 6 Innovators Making Paddling More Accessible To All Sexism in rafting isn’t dead, yet I arrived at the New River Gorge in West Virginia over 20 years ago to begin training as a whitewater guide. These guides worked on multiple rivers across the United States, including river communities in Idaho, West Virginia, the rivers of the Colorado Plateau and the Pacific Northwest. Dawson, who guided on a class V river for eight years and now works training outdoor guides, recalled a woman who reported her harassment, “And that person was never the same in the industry.