[Paddlewise] Kayaks and SAR

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone on the list belonged to a search and rescue group
and if they've used their kayaks during water searches.

I am the unit commander for my search and rescue organization's water rescue
and recovery team and I'm also a kayaker.  So far the only suggestions for
the use of my boat has been to try to rig it with the radio repeater so that
our radio signal jumps across water. I don't relish spending the entire
search just sitting in the middle of a lake but if it's needed I suppose I
would...

What I intend is to use the kayak for searching along river banks and lake
shores that are not easily accessible by land and into which our inflatable
or a police or fire boat cannot get into. I'm not talking about whitewater
but slow moving rivers (to class II maybe) and lakes. In most cases I'd
probably only be able to provide an alert rather than actually perform a
rescue but I could have with me some first aid equipment and other items
such as a blanket.

What about equipment? Is there anything beyond the normal safety and rescue
equipment that might be useful? I have a Pelican light fixed to my helmet
that works well (although every bug on the lake makes a beeline for my head
when it goes on) and I put another light under the bungee chord on the deck.

I also want to contact canoe clubs in our response area to discuss being a
resource if we needed extra people on the water--maybe have a team member
paired with a canoe club member with his or her canoe.

A British Columbia SAR group has some information but I think I've gotten
all the info from their site that I can.

Can anyone offer any ideas about this? I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,  Donna


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