Re: [Paddlewise] Safety--my bad rescue practice experience.

Kevin Whilden <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org> wrote:

> At 10:21 PM 9/6/00 -0700, Matt Broze wrote:
> ><snip>
> >
> >Possibly what went wrong was that the buoyancy of your high PFD and maybe
a
> >bubble in your dry suit (if you were wearing one and hadn't burped it
well)
> >floated your torso up to one side. This can make reaching for the surface
to
> >start a roll rather difficult and disorienting (because you couldn't find
> >the surface) if you floated up on the opposite side you were set up to
roll
> >on.
>
> This kind of thing happens a lot on the river, especially when someone
> capsizes to the downstream side when ferrying or peeling out of an eddy.
It
> also sometimes happens after a mean nasty hole spits you out into aerated
> water after putting you through a couple of wash cycles -- as I found out
> last weekend. It is indeed very disorienting to not be able to find the
> surface. I have always found that a switch to the other side roll is the
> perfect remedy. I have never encountered the problem that Matt describes
> with the same problem being reversed. I wonder  if this has something to
do
> with extreme flotation of two life vests or an unburped drysuit, and is
> therefore not likely to happen in nature (so to speak).

Yes I didn't have the problem until I started to wear a drysuit and then I
soon learned to squeeze out all the air I could.  Invariably switching to an
offside roll would switch me to floating up on the opposite side as well
when I was in this floated up to one side (and my paddle was
sometimes--about 50%--on the other). Maybe I didn't have good technique for
getting my paddle cleanly over to the other side but it seemed the motion of
moving the paddle had an equal and opposite reaction and moved my body to
the other side. Obviously, if I didn't have too much flotation on my upper
body I could just wait until I hung straight down and then roll.

> Another remedy to the problem that I sometimes use is the remain in the
> set-up position while performing several strong hipsnaps. This often
> results in a completion of the capsize so that you can start the roll. If
> even that fails, just go for a roll even though you disoriented. If you
> fail, then go for it again, because by this time, your boat almost
> certainly is back to normal upside down.

I could spend the waiting time mentioned above doing hip flicks (without
using the paddle) but I don't think that would necessarily speed up the
process of getting me to completely upside down.
What I am describing only takes one hip flick (and the paddle blade to block
the motion and move the body over to the other side). Slice the paddle back
under the kayak and you can continue the paddle return motion smoothly into
the roll. This is much quicker than doing any of the techniques Kevin
describes above.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com



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