The Rescue Toolbox

Rescues, reentries, rescuer, swimmer, victim, etc...
I want to tackle two topics in this post; The aforementioned toolbox and terminology and in that order.

We all have things that are near and dear to our hearts; topics which we rant about ceaselessly, testing the forbearance of friends and family alike.  For instance grounding and bonding of electrical components and raceways, politics (I'm far to the left but no pacifist) and kayaking safety.  Fortunately for many of you I will leave out the first two topics (the first probably makes no sense to many of you) and focus on a particular component of kayaking safety; rescues.  Not reentries; no mushy language here, but rescues, both self and assisted.


Many people plan on paddling alone when they buy their first kayak, which flies in thee face of basic back country safety.  Many of these new paddlers receive no basic safety training and no recommendations as to where to acquire it.  They launch, wearing shorts and a t-shirt and all say the same thing when the inappropriate nature of their attire is brought to their attention "I'm not planning on tipping over." is their response.  Well, who of us plans on tipping over?  Capsizing is one of the inherent risks of this activity and can happen on flat water, especially to new kayaker's who don't have even basic training.  After all, shit happens.
Point Wilson Rescue

  Self Rescue
Conventional wisdom is to not paddle by yourself.  Acknowledging that we do, if you paddle by yourself you should stay well within the comfort/skill envelope.  That said, capsizes do happen.  What do you do? In my classes for rescue there is a strict order of precedence

1. Roll up
2. Bow rescue 
3. T-rescue
4. Reenter and roll or some variant
5. Scramble Rescue
6. Paddlefloat rescue

TO get into this a bit further and to stay on self rescue, you may be wondering why rolling is in this list at all.  Rolling is the first line of defense, if you possess that skill.  It is a form of self rescue since it's all about reasserting control after losing control i.e. capsizing.  It is such a fast and fluid method of self rescue and seems so effortless after practicing it that it's not always viewed as a means of self rescue, but if that's the case then why is it appended onto the reenter and roll?  If you don't have a roll - and many sea kayakers don't (see post #1) - you immediately have to move down the list to scramble or paddlefloat (remember your alone so T-rescue isn't possible).  The scramble is possible in limited dynamic conditions but should be considered unreliable.  This leaves the paddlefloat.

The paddlefloat is a solid method of self rescue but is time consuming, tiring and leaves you in the water for more time than I would prefer.  It will also, with assiduous practice, get you out of the water and back into your boat.  This method of self rescue is advocated by the ACA but not the BCU.  I don't know why that is precisely.  My only tip here is to think about where your head is; where the head goes the body will follow right?  So put that head out over the outrigger formed by the paddle/paddlefloat.  If you put your weight opposite the outrigger you'll make the yellow rainbow.  Perhaps one more tip; PRACTICE!!!  Especially if this is your go to means of self rescue.  Practice it in flat water, practice it in wind, waves, current...practice it in the worst conditions that you can imagine yourself paddling because that is where you'll need it!  Incidentally, this is why people learn to roll and why you should never paddle alone or practice alone.

  Assisted Rescues:
These are exactly what they sound like.  Another paddler is assisting you in emptying your boat and getting you back in it.  These are many and varied and all have one thing in common, getting you back in you boat and underway as quickly and efficiently as possible.  These also require practice.  You'll find that if you practice with your usual paddling companions that even the T- rescue with a full load of water can be emptied in less than a minute.  This is also one of the things that separates a group of paddlers from a team of paddlers who watch each other and know how to make things happen.

One of the cool things about rescues is that you can adapt them.  One of my favorites is the reenter bow rescue.  Part self rescue and part assisted rescue and it requires practice (notice a theme in rescues yet?)  This rescue is great for close-in work around cliffs and rocks where you need to get the swimmer in the boat and out of the area pronto.  There is no fooling around with flopping boats around to empty them, it's just get in, get out and contact tow or paddle out.

A final word about rescues; Think about where you are and how you position yourself.  Are you in a place where emptying the boat is practical or safe?  Are you better off doing it in the main current or getting into the eddy and emptying it?  Use your head and don't get into the habit of just doing it by rote.

Terminology:
 One of the groups I've associated with in the past was insistent that we discontinue use of the words "rescue" and "victim" and substitute "reentry" and "swimmer".  I can understand that with victim...sometimes.  But the softening the language implies that the situation is not as serious as it is.  I can reenter my boat any time I want but when I eat it in the surge along a cliff, perhaps in a cave I need a rescue, not just my buddy poking along to give me a hand but a teammate that recognizes the situation  for what it is and rushing in to gain control of it.

real job

Real job got in the way of kayaking and my completing my blog on rescues.  Hope to complete it soon...

Point of Arches, Valley Etain and NLP Aleutian

It's not been the best summer for kayaking - at least not for me. Weddings, family reunions, work, etc. What does one do about this? Pack up the van and go to Hobuck!
Hobuck Resort, located on the Makah reservation are on the shore of Makah Bay just south of Cape Flattery, which is the most northwestern point of the continental United States. It's known for being a rather treacherous place to paddle due to weather, lack of places to bail out. Committing is the word that comes to mind. Hobuck is a surfer hangout and a great jumping off point for paddling the Washington Coast and for surfing your kayak or elf slipper (which is what surf kayaks look like).

I took a couple of Big Dog whitewater boats for surfing, a couple of skim boards for my daughters and the new Valley Etain. Rob Avery, the Valley distributor, encouraged me to take is someplace...exotic.  I also took my Northern Light Aleutian 3 piece paddle.

The surf forecast for the weekend was pretty mild which meant I'd be able to talk some of my surfing buddies into a trip to either Cape Flattery to the north or, more likely, to Point of Arches to the south. After a bit of conversation the consensus was that we head south to Point of Arches. This was due to a couple of reasons. Among them, several people had already been to the Cape (I haven't, the weather had always been dicey on past trips), we had a relative newbie along with us - Freya Fennwood ,fennwoodphotography, and a rock gardening class, taught by Tsunami Ranger Deb Volturno, was already headed that way which would make things a bit crowded.

In the morning we packed up our gear and headed out towards  Anderson Point, the first feature we'd have to contend with.   Anderson Point and it's neighbor, Portage Head, have their share of hazards; submerged rocks creating boomers and big holes in the water alternately and confused seas from the reflected waves. Given the conditions at this time however, it was a breeze.  not wanting to waste time fooling around here just yet we continued southward towards our destination.

point of Arches (Washington Dept. of Ecology Coastal Atlas)

Point of Arches is a collection of sea stacks and arches 6 nautical miles south of Hobuck.  At low tide people will walk on the beach and sand bars out to the few of these that are accessible on foot.  From the water, however, there are interesting passages to explore and slots to guide your boat through - preferably under control.

A note on equipment here; I was not paddling the best boat for playing among the narrow slots and rocks, nor the best paddle.  The Valley Etain  is more of an expedition boat than a play boat and doesn't turn as quickly as I'd like in these places.  That said, I was impressed that it did turn when I needed it to and at one point narrowly avoiding surfing into large rocks as I tried not to surf over one of these sand bars...but got surfed anyway.  The NLP Aleutian was great for the trip over to Point of Arches, but perhaps not the best choice for playing among the rocks as the length made some moves tricky in the tight slots.

This was the first trip into a place like this for Freya.  She stayed well away from the rocks and stacks and instead took pictures.  I hope she got some good ones...

Anderson Point

                                                        (Washington Dept. of Ecology Coastal photo Atlas)

After lunch it was time to head back.  We paddled north well offshore of Shi Shi beach until we got to Portage head.  I couldn't resist and headed in rather close to the rocks and cliffs.  According to Ed, Freya was rather uncomfortable at this point and said to her "Don't follow Mark." and led kept her well offshore as the swell was larger that it was on the outward bound leg.






It was good to get in close and to paddle through some of the surge along the cliffs and to feel the raw untamed power of the ocean; to learn your place in this environment.  While I don't tend to forget that I am nothing but a small meat nugget in a crunchy fiberglass shell, the crashing waves and white water swirling around the broken stone teeth will remind even the most recalcitrant of paddlers.  In fact, at one point, barely north of Anderson Point, I was studying a narrow passage between the point and a large rock deciding if I wanted to shoot through it,"What do you think Mike?"  I called.
"I'm not convinced yet..."  mike said.  And that was all I heard, except for the sucking sound and following CRASH!  The pattern changed suddenly and all of the water drained out of the channel showing glistening basalt jaws under the water.  The next set came in and filled the slot with swirling, seething, enraged water, cheated of is pound of flesh.

"I've made up my mind!"  I called to Mike, "I'm not going through that!"

We went around to the other side where we would've exited and waited for a repeat performance but it never happened.  Probably would've been just fine, but sometimes it feels like the sea is just waiting.  Waiting for you to place you head in it's ever hungry mouth, like a lion tamer into the jaws of the lion.  The problem is that usually it works out just fine but sometimes the sea is hungry.

It was an uneventful trip overall.  A little fun and a few miles on a beautiful day with friends makes for a great day.

Rolling, fundamentally

Not Just a Party Trick Anymore

“What happens if I tip over?”

“You just swim to shore. My general rule of thumb is to not be more the 50 yards off the shore”

“What about rolling? Can you roll a sea kayak?”

“You don’t have to be able to roll; it’s just a trick people learn to show off.”

This was a conversation I overheard in a nationally known chain of outdoor stores, in the kayaking section. I’ll give you a hint, it is generally known by its initials. The salesman in the above conversation was trying to allay the worries of a potential buyer of a kayak. The customer, clearly concerned about capsizing asked a reasonable question. The answer was preposterous. There was no recommendation of proper training and education on self-rescue and the comments about rolling are a common sentiment among a large percentage of the sea kayaking population. Imagine, being in the same store and saying that you knew nothing about climbing and you wanted to buy your first rope and you asked what happened if you fall. I suspect the advice the sales associate would give would not be to just climb close to the ground. Most likely, the associate would recommend proper training in climbing safety and technique.

As an instructor, I get asked - often - about rolling. Do I need to learn it? Is it hard? Can’t I just swim? My favorite comment; I don’t want to do white water I just want to paddle around the San Juans (I am in Seattle, just 2 hours from that island group). So I’ll address these questions in order; no, you don’t need to learn it, but you should. Rolling your kayak is not hard, provided you’ve had good instruction and you practice. Rolling is not a skill valuable only to white water paddling; imagine being halfway through a 3 mile crossing and capsizing. Shore is 1.5 miles away, can you execute a paddle float rescue or a T-rescue, probably (have you been practicing?), but doing so takes time and potentially puts other people at risk. Rolling would correct the situation in a few seconds, leaves your kayak empty and ready to resume your course. Also, the San Juans are the site of many kayaking incidents due to insufficient knowledge, training, practice and attention in a place that has many treacherous currents, shipping and changeable weather.

“Why should I learn how to roll?” You ask? Because it is fun! Admittedly, I do rolls off of piers, and for tour boats, as do many other kayakers I know. Yes, it is showing off and kids in an audience love it. If you learn this amazing skill you will be as cool as I am! Perhaps a better reason is that by learning to roll and developing a reliable roll a new kayaker will lose their fear of being upside down in the water and realize that it’s just part of kayaking rather that a potential debacle. Just set up, sweep, roll your hips (keep that head down!) and suddenly you’re back in an environment that is rich in molecular oxygen. If it doesn’t work you can always try again or exit and reenter the hard way. After you begin to feel secure using the roll your ability to brace will suddenly increase as will your appeal to the opposite sex. You will suddenly notice that there are people out there doing different types of rolls, perhaps using weird skinny paddles and different techniques and you will want more and more rolls you can’t get enough, you must have more!

The kayak roll is considered a fundamental skill in the whitewater paddling community. For reasons that are clear to most, upside down, bouncing your head along the bottom of a river through a rapid is just not a safe place to be. If you can’t roll – and not just in a pool but in the thick of it – many whitewater paddlers just won’t take you seriously and won’t allow you on their trips on more challenging runs. The reason for this is that you then become a liability to the group. Others will have to place themselves in harm’s way to help you because you didn’t have the requisite skills.
The sea kayaking community is different. It is generally older and has a more conservative sense of risk. Many sea paddlers are properly equipped and wear immersion protection. Many seek out instruction in boat control, forward stroke and pay a great deal of money for this instruction. Most never learn how to roll (see 1st paragraph). Why is that? With our ability to travel miles from shore swimming is certainly not a reliable way to deal with a capsize and in dynamic conditions the time it can take to execute a paddle-float reentry and pump out your boat can seem incredibly long, especially seeing as during that time you are at the mercy of the conditions, those same conditions that caused the capsize in the first place and possibly taking you into an even more dangerous place.
Learning to roll requires time, patience and practice, preferably good instruction, as well. Generally, I don’t recommend learning from a book. Teaching yourself and/or learning from a friend can be dicey, especially if the friend has a dicey roll. To quickly learn the roll it’s best to learn in a pool so that you feel comfortable in clear warm water. To wear a mask so that your sinuses don’t fill with water and so you can see the paddle and what you are doing. After learning the roll in a pool take it too a lake or protected piece of shore line. The water will be colder and it will make you feel rushed, but don’t give in. Keep calm and make that roll smooth and ingrain it into muscle memory. Move it into colder water and into rougher conditions, do a roll or two right after you get into your boat and get wet. Make it into a game. Soon, rolling will feel as natural to you and, if you’ve practiced it in wind, waves, surf and such you will find that it’s there for you when it counts. The process will become automatic and you won’t really have to think about it. Next thing you know you’ll be figuring out the reentry roll and learning other rolls – there are many – and integrating them into your repertoire.

One last thing, rolling is a tactic for correcting an earlier mistake - capsizing. It is not a substitute for bracing or good judgment. It’s merely a technique to limit the amount of time you are out of control to seconds rather than minutes, to make you less a liability at those times and more an asset. As I mentioned earlier, developing a good roll will help your bracing skills develop. You’ll have better control of your body and a more relaxed mindset as a roll is little more than a rather extreme high brace. Just don’t allow yourself to get into the habit of, when you sense an impending capsize, setting up for a roll. Instead sweep that brace stroke, just like you’re at the end of the roll.