First, I want to emphasize that my wife & I were not novices in over our heads. We have rafted numerous times, including the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge in Colorado and multiple trips through Class IV/V rapids on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. On Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018, we took Three Rivers Whitewater (TRW)’s “Last Blast” trip on the Dead River. We understand that the Dead River is rough during these releases and were ready for an exciting ride. Our guide was named Jimmy and it quickly became evident that he was not ready for this role. Guides on previous trips have always described the upcoming rapid and explained the best way to approach them. We didn’t get any info like that and several times we got few and/or late paddling instructions. Jimmy stated that it was his first season with TRW and said that most times he didn’t really know which rapid we were approaching until we were in it. Still, when he took us sideways into a hole and my wife and another rafter were thrown out, we figured okay, even the best guide can make a mistake. But later, Jimmy said, “I might have misjudged that first one.” We appreciated the candor but that didn’t exactly instill confidence. Then a mishap occurred that was inexcusable and completely preventable. While transiting the area near Evil Nasty Hole and FBI, Jimmy did not wait for the preceding raft to clear before going in. Our raft ran up underneath the one ahead, ejecting my wife and the man who went overboard with her the first time, another guest, and Jimmy the guide. My wife and at least one other person became trapped under our raft. We don’t know for exactly how long but the following sequence of events provides a reasonable estimate. I was focused on paddling and this happened so fast that the first indication of a problem was when the back of the other raft hit me in the face and knocked me flat in the bottom of our raft. I caught a glimpse of the others going out but was stuck on the floor for several seconds until the other raft slid off. I got back up, got oriented, and called my wife’s name at least 4 times with a second or two in between. Another guest popped up near the raft and I was able to grab the shoulders of his vest as rafters are taught once he swam over. I hauled him into the raft. It took several more seconds to get disentangled and back up looking for my wife. It had been long enough that fear of a tragic outcome was starting to come into my mind when someone finally shouted, “There she is!” and we were able to retrieve my wife, who was gasping for air and shaking but otherwise unhurt. Jimmy, to his credit, apologized once the dust settled but then quite ridiculously added, “But you were never in any real danger.” I wonder if he’s ever been trapped under a raft in a cold river with all the things they warn you about, like foot entrapment, rocks, and debris entanglement, running through your mind as you struggle to get back to the surface and breathe. In our experience, other guides and companies always transit a rapid one at a time, holding the other rafts out of the rapid until the one in front clears. This seems like an obvious precaution to prevent exactly what happened. On the bus ride back, a female guide angrily said to Jimmy, “I’ve told you not to do that!” We’re not sure what she was referring to but running our raft underneath another one seems a likely possibility. We were told that TRW captured this event on video from multiple vantage points. Our raft had a GoPro on it and another TRW staffer was capturing video from near the bank when this happened. Jimmy and the videographer were quite excited that the “carnage” had been captured on video. The raft-mounted GoPro camera had to be turned on and off because of the battery life, and being sure it was on and properly aimed was a constant and major distraction to our guide and the two rafters seated in front. We also have to wonder whether the desire to get good video led our guide to take more aggressive lines than he might have otherwise. Please feel free to contact me for whatever additional information will be helpful.