Most RICKA paddles are described as Level 2 , Level 2-3, Level 3, or Level 3-4 to take into account a crossover of conditions and distance. Having done a bunch of their paddles, I can say that their system seems to work pretty well for them. I think someone showing up for one of their rated paddles has a much better idea of what to expect than someone showing up for one of ours with the current system. For most paddlers, the decision to join in usually comes down to - Can I handle the conditions? and/or Can I handle the distance? You can do a short, really challenging rough water paddle or as Jay mentioned, a really long flat easy paddle. There are plenty of folks out there that are OK with distance, but not with conditions. Perhaps the trip ratings should be based mainly on the skill set required for the expected conditions for a given outing with a separate mention of distance. While I'm usually an advocate for keeping things as simple as possible, in my view, the current system is too simple and ill-defined to be useful. Basically all our paddles and paddlers are "intermediate". And as Greg mentioned, some "ability to handle tidal currents and confused conditions" should probably be mentioned somewhere in the rating system as well.