Aug 2001
Safety and Rescue
by Dana Dickson (Inland Sea Kayakers)
One of the safety requirements that ISK has of its members who go on group trips is that they demonstrate wet exits and rescue skills annually. The reasons we do this are driven home to me every season as I wet exit for what seems like the millionth time. This spring I demonstrated my exits and rescues in a new boat. I was not accustomed to the way the boat handled or responded to my weight shifting. Despite planning on a wet exit, I was surprised at finding myself upside down in my boat.
Often there is a moment of panic when we are in strange and potentially dangerous situations. One of the ways of dealing with that panic is to practice being in such a situation under controlled circumstances. By practicing wet exits, we learn that kayaks are stable boats under most circumstances. Although some of the people who have been asked to demonstrate their wet exits look upon this as a test, that is not the intent of the annual demonstration. As I discovered this spring, regular practice is necessary if we are to maintain our skills. Wet exiting sounds simple when it is described verbally. What can possibly be difficult about locating a spray skirt grab loop, pulling the spray skirt free, pushing your rear end out of the seat and floating to the surface? It does get more complicated when your eyes are closed, your sinuses are full of water, you are upside down and you need to keep track of your paddle. The primary benefit I get from being observed or from observing someone else’s wet exit is that unquantifiable comfort that comes when I capsize accidentally or I have to help with a rescue. I know that I am not likely to panic and I will remember that I have done this before.
Once you are in the water, you have several options for rescue. First, you could attempt a self-rescue or ask for assistance. There are varieties of possible self-rescues. I have seen people reenter their boats with just a good sense of balance, no paddle float, no assistance and very calm water. Another option is to do a paddle float rescue. In this self-rescue, a floatation device is placed on one end of the paddle to create an outrigger that stabilizes the kayak during the reentry. Still another is to do a reentry and roll. A reentry and roll can be done with or without a paddle float. Detailed descriptions of these self-rescues can be found in books about kayaking or learned in classes presented by certified instructors. Being able to do a self-rescue is a great confidence builder. Confidence that you can safety exit and reenter a kayak allows you the freedom to push your limits and learn other new paddling skills.
Assisted rescues are another important set of rescue skills. In rough water, it may be impossible to perform a self-rescue and empty your cockpit before you re-capsize. Assisted rescues can also be much faster than self-rescues. There are varieties of assisted rescues described in books about kayaking. One of the most common is the Eskimo bow assist. This is used when spotting some one who is learning to brace or roll. After capsizing, the capsized person moves his/her hands alongside the sides of the boat until the rescuer’s bow can be felt and used to hip snap up. The trick to an effective bow assist is to be close enough to the person needing assistance to be able to get to them before they need to wet exit.
Another assisted rescue that is taught in kayaking classes is the T-rescue. In this rescue, the rescued boat’s cockpit is drained by the rescuer lifting the bow of the rescued boat over the deck of his or her boat. While this rescue works well with unloaded boats, it may be impossible with a loaded boat on a trip. After the boat is drained, the rescuer stabilizes the boat while the rescuee climbs back into the boat.
An effective assisted rescue that can be very quick and does not require a wet exit is the Eskimo side rescue. In this rescue the rescuer comes up parallel to the rescuee and places his/her paddle across the deck of the boat and the overturned kayak’s hull. The rescuee reaches up and uses the paddle shaft to hip snap up. Since the rescue does not require the rescuer to be at right angles to the rescued boat it is often faster and offers the potential that the capsized boat’s cockpit will remain dry.
Like the self-rescues, detailed descriptions of assisted rescues are available in books. These rescues can also be learned in classes.
Although the most common use of rescue skills is when we are spotting fellow kayakers who are practicing skills, they do have other applications as well. In the past year, ISK members have rescued three canoeists on the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. The skills developed in doing assisted rescues with kayaks were readily transferable to draining swamped canoes and stabilizing a canoe while the paddlers reentered their boat.
