It's not just sitting in the boat and waiting for the guide to say forward, back paddle, right turn, left turn, or stop. Each must know instinctively what to do and when. High Side situations must be anticipating and paddlers must always be ready to jump automatically to prevent a wrap. Similarly they must also be ready to use their weight to jump to the high side of a raft to prevent a big wave from flipping a boat. Class V paddling requires strength, endurance, anticipation, aggressiveness, proactive action and a single mistake, a missed stroke, can cost the whole crew.
Paddlers use the left draw and right draw strokes to help position boats properly.
Each team must be prepared to backup and should set up safety rescue at dangerous points for other boats. Class V Swimmers Class V paddlers must also know well how to anchor themselves into the boat because the boats can pivot and turn and get tossed easily in difficult water. There are often big drops and chutes and reversals at bottoms of waterfalls that can pull and suck boats in many different ways. Class V water is not forgiving, a swimmer can NOT just sit there and wait to be picked up, that could be a deadly mistake. Class V water has very strong hydraulics, often there are many dangerous undercut rocks.