Re: [Paddlewise] wet exits/entrapment

Hi friends,

I understand it is part of the training at  ACA (American Canoe 
Association), and it is taught in the Instructor Development Workshop (IDW) 
and in the ICE (Instructor certificate examination), that instructors must 
work with new students in learning how to wet exit comfortably.

One approach has been a Demo and Do exercise in which the instructor demos 
entrance and exit on land and asks the student to repeat the  motion of 
placing the sprayskirt after entrance and freeing it from the front ribbon 
and doing the motion to exit, step by step, running the fingers sideways to 
liberate the sprayskirt after it is loose up front, sliding the body 
backwards, using both arms for support and checking to clear the knee 
braces, and so on.

After that, he demos in the water and then on a one by one basis, standing 
in the water by the student, he sees that each student tips over and does 
the wet exit with confidence, even banging the hull once upside down to 
show that he is at ease. If he fails to do so and does not feel confident, 
then he can try it another time. If he still feels uncomfortable he can not 
continue the class, traveling with others with the sprayskirt on, because 
then one is asking for trouble.

I have made a point to give students a nylon cloth sprayskirt that will 
always come loose in case of panic, but which holds well for rolls and 
eskimo rescues. With the training and this precaution I know that they are 
confident, but I minimize risks in case they change their minds.

Best Regards,

Rafael.
www.mayanseas.com






e the At 08:17 a.m. 18/09/01 -0400, you wrote:
>At 11:04 PM 9/17/01 +0000, skimmer_at_mail3.enter.net wrote:
>>Hi All,
>>I am currently writing an accident report about a case of novice
>>entrapment that resulted in the death of the student.
>>
>>I have taught novice paddlers the basics for about 15 years.
>>
>>It is my policy, wether teaching novices or taking "guests" out for a
>>first paddle, to NEVER allow them to use a spray skirt without first
>>demonstrating command and comfort in executing wet exits first
>>without and then with spray skirts. These exercises are done in a
>>situation where an instructor is standing nearby the the student in
>>position to assist the student if they panic or fail for any reason
>>to exit the boat.
>>
>>If conditions are such that we can not initially do such wet exit
>>training but must paddle to work on strokes and rescues--- THEN THE
>>STUDENTS PADDLE without spray skirts. We never break this rule.
>>Students always wear PFDs, of course.
>>
>>Demonstrations of wet exits on land are not, in my opinion, ever
>>sufficient to allow students to skip the capsize drills in the water.
>>
>>I look forwards to your discussion of this policy.
>>
>>Am I the only instructor following this practice?
>
>I doubt it.  The friend of mine that owns the local kayak shop sells, 
>rents, and gives lessons in kayaks.  He won't give any of his renters a 
>sprayskirt unless he's seen them do a wet exit with a spray skirt attached 
>or they can convince him that they've done one.  During the lessons he 
>typically has first time students do at least two wet exits, followed by 
>an assisted rescue and another for a paddlefloat reentry.  However, he 
>doesn't stand in the water next to them.  Personally I think that many of 
>the real nervous beginners might find prefer that than having him sitting 
>in his boat.
>
>The other group that I help out with quite often is the Cornell Outing 
>Club.  It's a club, primarily students, that does a variety of outdoor 
>activities, including kayaking. They have a bunch of whitewater boats for 
>club use.  Before anyone in the club is allowed to use one of the kayaks 
>they must demonstrate two *calm* wet exits.  In fact, before anyone is 
>given a paddle, they must do the wet exits.  Since there are always new 
>freshmen coming in to join the club I have been out several times helping 
>first timers.  A week ago there were ten new members and most of them did 
>quite well.  One particular woman, however, was very nervous about the 
>whole thing.  I demonstrated one to show how much time she really had 
>before she needed to pull the grab loop and get out.  I tipped over, spun 
>the paddle around on the hull, twiddled my fingers, took my hands under 
>water, and then back up again, twiddled some more, and then released my 
>skirt and came out.  Then she tried it.  She was out of the boat before it 
>got completely upside down.  Her second one was a bit better and we made 
>her do a third.  Now here's the kicker.  She's a lifeguard.
>
>Some people just seem to get a lot more nervous about the whole thing and 
>it's hard to explain why.  It's not just being underwater.
>
>
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