White Water Safety And Rescue

Kevin Murray

This is a report on my recent White Water Safety and Rescue Course (WWSR).

Attendance on the WWSR is a pre-requisite for the 4 Star White Water Leader Award, which is why I went on the course. It's a follow on from the Foundation Safety and Rescue Course (FSR). So what's the difference between the two?

I attended the WWSR weekend course with Adrian Harkin from Just Kayak in Moville, Donegall on 12/13 December 2009. He brought in Roger to mainly deliver the training. Adrian has a Guest House where he can accommodate up to at least 6 people. Bread, cereal etc. was provided and Moville has several chip & corner shops, Chinese etc so it was no problem to sort out food.

The course lasted two days. The course began on the Saturday with “the students” discussing their fears – most of us feared having to rescue a person who had been trapped or caught. Some just wanted more general information on what they could do in different rescue situations.

We were introduced to equipment. Each person will decide the amount and type of equipment they will bring. This is not an exact science. Some people will prefer to choose a certain system which they are more confident with and will equip themselves depending on this choice.

Throw Line	Helmet	Buoyancy Aid
Spare Clothes & Dry Bag	Drinks Flask	Knife
Sling & Carabiner	Tape	Shelter
First Aid Kit	Whistle	Cowstail

Any one of these items could easily be the subject of a whole evening discussion on tactics and personal preferences. For example, Adrian prefers to carry a thin 10m and a thin 15m throw rope. He doesn't generally carry spare clothes as he has an 8 person shelter (he actually used it to great effect on the Sunday after a child went for a very cold swim).

We discussed the “Clean” system.

A Clean Rope has no unnecessary knots.

We discussed the “handle” which is still often attached to the throw bag. Why is this necessary? Could it get caught? Does it help when throwing? or are you better just grabbing the neck of the bag - and having a Clean Bag. How many totally clean throws can you make to a target the length of a boat 10 metres away?

Do you have a Clean Buoyancy Aid (PFD)? There should be nothing attached to you which could snag on anything.

Then we had throw rope practice. Accuracy and distance are important as are speed to be able to rethrow. Roger set up an obstacle course with each base testing distance, under arm, side arm, over arm throws, moving target, accuracy. There is no point having great accuracy if your rope has been coiled incorrectly. I preferred the butterfly coil, but he showed us another technique using two coils which I had not seen before.. Never trust a bag someone else has packed.

Then we were shown how to deploy the support line and Cinch. “Wot?” I hear you say…Well it’s a technique to extract a trapped swimmer. We will talk about the rescue soon but could the problem have been avoided in the first place? Perhaps. So let’s talk about swimming first.

Swimming.

The protocol for the leader when considering a rescue is: Self; Team; Swimmer; Kit.

In moving water you should make sure your feet are on the surface, lie on your back and keep your arms outstretched to each side to maintain balance. Look out for obstacles downstream and try to aggressively swim over anything rather than go under it. Use a swimming backwards motion with your arms to move to the side of the river then roll over the eddy line onto your front and swim aggressively for the side.

When swimming on your back ONLY try to stand up when the water is barely moving. This is in case your foot gets trapped and the force of the water pins you on your front. If you do get “Pinned” there are various rescues which can be attempted – so keep an eye out for tension ropes or even a paddle coming your way which you may be able to lean on.

Swimmer Protocol

1. The first priority is the swimmer. The equipment can be rescued later. If possible hold onto your paddle and boat.

2. If this isn’t possible swim defensively and try to reach the bank yourself. If assistance is offered by another kayaker, gently crawl onto their back deck and hold onto their waist and kick aggressively to assist you both getting to the side.

3. If you have been trashed a little when you have been swimming try not to feel sorry for yourself. I know this sounds a little harsh but eh.. “man up” if you are able to and get back into the fight as soon as you can. [Note: or presumably “woman up” if appropriate — Ed]

Say you have a trapped swimmer. It is important to realise rescue techniques are not straightforward, i.e. there is no guarantee if you do this you will get this outcome. It is more a list of techniques you may wish to deploy if you find yourself in this situation.

It is no longer an approved technique to send down another swimmer using two lines. So park that. There are two things to try.

Plan A is that a line is thrown across the river and tensioned then brought up under the trapped person. The trapped person can then lean on this. Then a paddle is attached to the line by a crab & sling and let loose so that the current delivers the paddle to the trapped person. They will instinctively use the paddle to support or extract themselves.

Plan B is a cinch which enables a trapped swimmer to be clenched between two ropes. It takes about a small army of rescuers but it still well worth knowing about. It is too technical for me to describe this here but I’m very happy to show anybody how it works.

In the afternoon we paddled down a river which had a grade 3 or 4 section. Two drops. I must confess I didn’t do very well as “leader”. The two coaches set up safety in the failing light.

The evening session was revising rope techniques and introducing tension diagonals. A tension diagonal is set up across and downstream (about 60 degrees) to the flow. It can be used to bring equipment across without anyone entering the water. It could be used to rescue a stranded person mid river. Again I am happy to show how this would work.

The next morning we headed for the Mourne to do the “fisheries”. Again as leader I completely messed up the group control. One person capsized and it took about 200m to effect a rescue. I lost their paddle. Pants. Also got someone else (theoretically) pinned upstream. The coaches were rightly very direct in their appraisal. It was really good to learn in this training environment and I know the lessons learned will last a long time. They let me run it all again and this time I brought the whole group into 3 eddies on the way down. I nearly got it right that time.

We then set up a 40m “tension diagonal” across the river and sent an unmanned kayak backwards and forwards across the river.

After paddling down to warm up… we then had the swimming practice. Defensive swimming & rolling over eddy lines. The water was absolutely Baltic. The “live bait” from a person belayed to the shore using ropes, slings, carabiners. Quick release belts used and deployed.

After experiencing this course I think it's absolutely crucial to anyone who paddles in any kind of moving water. I am certain we all need to know these skills and practice them regularly. There is no point in just a few members knowing this stuff. Adrian and Roger had their patience tested (by me alone) to the limit and they never cracked. I salute them.

So think about enrolling for a WWSR course. Perhaps doing the course during the summer months would be less frenetic and more enjoyable. Although I think that if you can carry out this stuff during the winter, you will definitely be able to do it during the summer.