rescues rewind
Posted by derrick on July 19, 2008
watching bow rescue
Yesterday I spent the afternoon teaching a rescues class with Justine & Barry. It’s interesting to see the different view points. Here in the Midwest, basic rescues are wrapped up around the paddlefloat & T rescues. I’m sure this came from an atmosphere where there are small lakes and ponds in nearly every square mile. Paddlers generally find themselves in calm warm conditions and are rarely in a desperate hurry to get back in their boats. Of course on the Great Lakes and the open ocean the idea of spending time dangling in the water while you blow up a paddle float seems almost silly. A discussion coaches have all the time with very mixed opinions. Personally I’m not a fan of the paddlefloat recovery. I feel that there are almost always better ways to get back in your boat. This is where people who talk down rolling do folks a real disservice. Alone in conditions that put you over, rolling your kayak is the quickest, safest way to survive. Just the act of coming out of your boat will usually increase your risk.
dead weight
A cowboy recovery or re-entry roll are the first things that come to mind when I think about coming out of your boat. Depending on conditions either is fast and effective. Most paddlers can quickly do one or the other in less time than it takes to get a paddlefloat off the deck. Still though, I do tend to carry a paddlefloat with the thought that it’s always nice to have this little “aid” around even if I’m not exacty sure what I would do with it!
stabilizing. . . or just hanging out. .
When put in the position of helping someone recover in anything other than a warm pond time again is of the essence. The last thing we want to do is leave someone floating in the water. From this standpoint a bow rescue becomes much more important. If someone goes over and can’t roll for whatever reason, a bow rescue is a quick solution that keeps them in the cockpit. The trick is making sure that paddlers learn to hang out in their kayaks early on in their learning experiences. Teaching them to only come out of the boat as a last resort is a good focus point.
getting scooped . . .
Sometimes though people do come out of their kayaks. For the sake of speed you can often just forgo the “T” in the T rescue and just scoop the paddler back into their kayak. If you have the luxury of time then the T rescue is the standard.
justine teaching a “T”
In our class we talked a bit about bringing paddlers between the boats which has been sort of hip recently. The first time I started hearing about this I was a little dubious. The idea of having someone fooling around between the boats sounds a bit dangerous to me. It was good to hear Barry point out the downsides of this method so I knew I was not alone in questioning it. A head between two loaded boats bouncing in an rough sea brings to mind the image of a walnut in a nutcracker. Yikes!
We do a lot of surfing and when someone gets wiped out and exits their kayak the quickest is an assisted rescue, sometimes you have to tow out of the surf zone, but make no mistake ROLLING is the quickest and best way to recover. Go learn to Eskimo roll ,it will justiy the effort
One our local paddle shops puts on a free paddlefest at a local lake every spring. It is a very well attended event that tends to attract alot of newbies. During a rescue demonstration three paddlers go over. One rolls, one does the cowboy and the third does a paddle float rescue. The roller will pull off multiple rolls, the cowboy will capsize & reenter several times, all the while the paddler with the float is still blowing it up. I think it really opens some less experienced paddlers eyes. Especially when the announcer mentions that the local river is 39 degrees in the winter!
As far as I can tell, it’s the norm in Seattle, too - and we certainly don’t have the warm water excuse… Maybe because it’s less daunting for novices?
Derek,
You’ve said it, Derek, but not directly this time.
Not including silly upside-downy goofs on flat calm water, in the conditions that would capsize you the beginner-intermediate paddler, the paddlefloat rescue has already become near impossible unless that capsize was an unexpected boat wake in calm water. You were evidently distracted by your sweetheart to starboard. Unh hunh, sure.
Experienced paddlers discovered that paddlefloat rescues becomes near impossible in heavy winds and waves. (Sea Kayaker Magazine - a few ago, I believe) The water-bag counterweight paddlefloat was developed to attempt to fix their discovered problems of the float getting caught by the wind. How many buy that expensive device? (I didn’t) How many stores are keeping it in stock if no one is being convinced to spend the extra money? Result - very few paddlers own a rescue float which remains useful in stronger winds and waves where they’ll find themselves out of their boats.
Stores and industry advancing the paddlefloat rescue as a basic foundational safety option may ultimately expose more paddlers to hazards beyond the knowledge, judgment and experience than they help. It’s a false sense of security, and promotes complacency. Due to the associated reduced strength and fitness of ever aging sea kayak paddler demographic, and older new paddlers, that risk is probably increasing as the average age reaches towards and beyond retirement years.
I had the benefit of ten years of whitewater to make my roll bombproof both sides. I’ve often discussed with store staff (’Oh yes, buy this paddlefloat to get back in.’) My response was something like, ‘Are you f kidding me’ Have you thought this through to it’s end? I don’t push paddlers to consider doing whitewater, (I do encourage some to try) but I’m discovering I can pass on some ideas and methods regarding the value of rolling and…. braces, which most whitewater-surf paddlers get good at through what one could playfully name ‘involuntary practice’. Grins.
One early British kayak store in North America scoffed at our silly paddlefloat mentality and encouraged all to learn to roll. Basic survival. BASIC! ‘Elementary my dear chap.’ Would Bond, James Bond know how to roll, or how to paddlefloat? ‘Ah, but James is an elite, which I am not’, argues the intermediate. True. But Bond always survives, and only goes if he will survive for sure. You?
As a regular solo paddler in heavy weather, my preferred rescues are
- Roll, roll, and roll
- Re-entry and roll (Surf can rip you right out of your cockpit - aouch!)
As playful backups, I enjoy
- Cowboy (using plenty of bracing) which for solo work requires a foot or electric pump - 2 hand pumping impossible in such conditions. It also requires a clear rear deck.
For group paddling - start with above then add
- Between the boats, if boats are empty and conditions allow.
- Over the boat assisted rescues.
- Stirrup as required for others for which the above fail to work.
As a roller, rolling is pretty much all I bother with for myself. I strive (work at and play) to keep it bombproof.
Test-paddling a kayak involves rolling, exit and re-entry and roll.
I sometimes carry a paddlefloat in the event I find an exhausted 250+ pounder in the water, and no, I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with it, but have a flexible plan ready. I leave the paddlefloat ashore in any conditions that would capsize the beginner-intermediate right at the beach.
Idea to consider: If we, as instructors, teach sound, strong and competent bracing skills effectively, the roll they’ve put their efforts into learning will be needed only in surf and whitewater-type conditions, and during essential practice sessions. Please read that again.
As a group with a huge influence on the fast-growing numbers of new paddlers, only a few among instructors give me the impression of understanding and teaching the full value of braces, and especially… moving braces. It’s a hard sell, but a worthy one. So far, in over 30 years of paddling in many conditions, I’ve only needed my roll in surf and whitewater. Caution - not to be used as an excuse for complacency nor as reason not learn to roll.
I think It’s these paddler’s voices we need to listen to more. I appreciate your voice, Derek, which asks questions, explores, teaches and especially, inspires. Keep up the good work.
thanks,
Marc
What to do with a paddle float?
How about using it to practice knee/hip lifts? Really good for isolating this skill and working on it.
My favourite use of a paddle float is for snorkelling. Simply stick it on end of the paddle, put on snorkel and mask, lean into the water using the paddle shaft and enjoy the view! Works great for those coral reefs off headlands and along cliffs…..many of which are found in the Whitsundays where I have just spent a couple of weeks.
Great comments! I find myself regularly hoping people read the comments. Often your notes are more worthwhile than the original post!!
I prefer the two chamber floats. You fill one with coke and the other with Whiskey.
PT’s comment about PF rescues being less daunting has some Merit. It is fairly straight forward. Thing is, at least they way I do things, students spend enough time early on falling off and playing with cowboy recoveries (in flat water) that by they time they get to the PF they ask “why would I do this?”
I’m sure there are people though for whom the paddlefloat is the best option depending on fitness and so forth. Sometimes the choice is to just know your own limitations which I try to express in classes as well. Also a paddlefloat is NOT all that simple for some either. You still have to have a certain level of upper arm strength and balance. Often if you can’t get up on the deck and you are a bit heavy you will just sink the float. So even if you are looking at it as the simplest solution, it won’t always go as expected.
Derrick,
I don’t disagree that there are any number of rescues that can be faster and more effective than a traditional paddlefloat reentry. On the other hand, I believe it’s generally a good time to have as many arrows in your self-rescue quiver as possible.
The real problems–as I see it–are: 1) the tendency of paddlers to learn only one or two rescues and thereby become tunnel-visioned when it comes to real emergencies; and 2) the failure to practice rescues in increasingly challenging conditions.
That much derided paddle float can be used to create an outrigger to stabilize a kayak if you have a shoulder injury and need to stay upright, can be used as a signal flag, can assist a tired paddler in a reenter and roll, can be fashioned into a very effective air-splint for a broken bone, etc. For the amount of space it takes, I’d consider it a pretty useful tool to have.
Marc’s earlier point about a pf rescue being ineffective in wind and waves conditions isn’t true in my experience. Fairly early in my paddling career, back in 2000, while surfing near a pier, I missed a roll, panicked, lost my head, and wet-exited. Waves were 3-5′, winds 15-25kn, and I was getting pushed dangerously close to the pier. At the time, having had limited experience with other rescues, I instinctively pulled out the pf, inflated it, and re-entered in the break. Once in, I just paddled out past the break with the float still on and my cockpit full of water. However, I was able to get into my kayak and off and paddling out of the surf in less than a minute. While a roll, or re-enter and roll would have been undoubtedly faster, I’m not convinced a cowboy reentry would have worked in one try in the break…and, from my vantage, it was a one-shot deal before boat and paddler were pushed into the pilings.
But, part of the reason I could nail it in those conditions was that I practiced it all the time for demonstration as an instructor.
Anyhow, if you want a good chuckle on everything that’s wrong with the pf rescue as most people approach it, check out this post on our blog: http://h2ohio.blogspot.com/2008/06/paddle-float-re-capsize.html
Cheers!
–Mark
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