[Paddlewise] Stuck in cockpit

Last wednesday I was instructing a group of novices. They were in kayaks for
the third time. All of them had capsised in the first lesson, and shown that
they were able to remove their sprayskirts and get out of the boat. During
that exercise an instructor was standing in the water next to the kayak, to
help if the novice did not manage to get out. All got out without problems.

Last wednesday a guy capsised in deep water and panicked. I saw him
struggling to get his head above the surface, without releasing his
sprayskirt.

Luckily he was on my side of his kayak. If brought my bow close to him, and
he managed to grab my bow. After that I told him to relax and breath, and
then to take his time to get out of his boat.

If he had tried to get to the surface on the other side, I would have had to
paddle around, loosing precious seconds. I he was too panicked to grab my
bow, I don't know what else I could have done.

Does anybody have experience with rescues in that situation? Any
standard-rescues available?

Niels Blaauw.

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