Our employees

It is absolutely cruicial for the safety on our activities that they are lead by professional and experienced guides. On every trip here at Heidal Rafting safety comes first!

Therefore our guides are the best ones you will find in the river sports environment. We have a mixture of Norwegian and foreign guides to ensure both a local connection and international inspiration.

Many of our guides are all year guides, this means that they during the Norwegian winter work as guides in other places around the world, like South-America, Africa and Australia.

In addition to all they’re knowledge on the river, they are also very nice and service minded, and strive to give you the best experience possible.

 

Eirik, safety manager, tour leader grade 5:

Have worked as a rafting guide for 19 years, of those he has spent the last 10 here at Heidal Rafting and 3 as our safety manager. Experience from different rivers in Norway and Costa Rica. Eirik has had 7 years as a full time rafting guide.

The last couple of winters he has spent studying and working, the goal is to get a steady job as a teatcher before turning 40…



Kjell Kristian, Head guide, tour leader grade 5:

Rafting guide for 5 years, all at Heidal Rafting.

Kjell Kristian has a real heart for everything in river sports and other outdoor activities.

One of our men on rope activities.

In the winters he studies to become PE teacher, specializing in outdoor activities.



Mariann, Head-guide, tour leader grade 5:

Riverboard guide for 12 years, rafting guide for 6, all here at Heidal Rafting.

Besides this she is also Norway’s and one of the worlds best female kayakers, with many titles both national and international.

She is the one in our stab with a local connection, coming from Otta, but her winters are spent in Chile.




Gigo, Head-guide, tour leader grade 5:

Gigo is from Chile and started here with us in 2006, something we are very glad for.

Gigo knows everything on the river in addition to being a genius when it comes to barbequing a whole lamb.

He has experience from amongst others; Futalefu and has been a guide for 15 years.








Tyler, Head-guide, tour leader grade 5:

Tyler started working a little bit for us in 2005, went away with Mariann in 2006, but are luckily back with us now.

Tyler is from Canada, and have guided rafts for 4 years, but he have tons of experience on the river.

Tyler is also well known in the international kayak environment, and are 4 times Canadian champion in freestyle kayak.







Colin, Head-guide, Tour leader grade 5:

The Australian among us was here for the first time on a short visit in 2006, and the “connection” proved so good that he is now staying with us for the whole season. Colin have guided amongst others Penrith and on Iceland before he came to us.

He is also a very good kayakkpadler.


Santiago, Head-guide, tour leader grade 5:

Santi is from Argentina and was also here for the first time on a short visit in 2006, and now he is here for the whole season.

Earlier Santi have worked in Argentina and Spain and this he has been doing for about 8 years.






Marcos, Head-Guide, tour leader grade 5:

A newcomer here at us this year, he comes from Brasil, but with experience from Peru, California, Argenitna and Costa Rica you should be in good hands if you get him as your guide. All this he has done in 7 years.

He is also the man who took responsibility and got the guidehouse cleaned up =)





Rob, Head-guide, Tour leader grade 5:

Another newcomer to Heidal Rafting. Rob is from South Africa and have experience from the White Nile in Africa and Apurimac in Peru. He has worked in 7 years now as a full time rafting guide, but have for the latter years worked mostly as a photographer in Canada together with his Canadian girlfriend.

This last winter he surfed in Cape Town.









Miguel, Head-guide, Tour leader grade 5:

Our second guy from Chile is also a newcomer to Heidal Rafting this year.
But with a good recomondation from Gigo who worked together with him in Chile, we where never in doubt, nice!!!










Other employees:

Kristin:

If you hear a nice voice in the other end when you call us, it’s probably Kristin you’re talking to. She has worked with rafting administration for 12 years, the last 10 here at Heidal Rafting.

Priceless in daily operation and with a lot of experience she keeps this company going strong.

Kristin have also been on the river for quite some time, so she knows what she is talking about.

Evelien:

Our photografer.

Evelien comes from the Netherlands, and eventhough she was in Sjoa in both 2005 and 2006, it isn’t before this year she started working for us. Something we are very happy about.

This is the one responsible for many of the great pictures you can see on our web-site.

Frans:

Our bus-driver for the last two years, and hopefully for many more to come.

Good humor is one of the best attributes for a bus-chauffeur, and Frans has loads of it =)
He also comes in handy whenever there is something that needs to be fixed on a vehicle, something both we and some unfortunate guests have experienced.