[Paddlewise] My own Deep Trouble

This weekend, I participated in my first whitewater slalom race--what a
challenge!  Not only do you have to successfully paddle a stretch of
whitewater, you also have to paddle through preset gates…and you're
timed!

The race was on the lower end of the "Wild Mile", a gnarly Class V
stretch of the Swan River in NW Montana.  The lowest 1/8 mile was
running about Class III.  At the end of this run, the river passes
under a bridge and out into Bigfork Bay and then into Flathead Lake. 
There are numerous homes, condos and a resort on the Bay, all with
docks and decks at the water's edge.  I have put in at the location of
the start of this beginner race in late August, for paddling the Lake
beyond and it was all flat water--not now!

I got through the first 3 upstream gates and a ferry fine.  Missed the
first 3 downriver gates as I peeled out of an eddy too quickly.  Got
under the 4th gate, and missed the last 3 after another tricky eddy
turn.  Oh well, 6 gates=6 minutes penalty.  I wasn't expecting to win
anyway, but this was fun!

Each racer was asked to wait at the bottom for the two racers behind
them...I finished my first run, saw the next two folks come in safely
and was about to exit my boat to hike up for my second run when the
next boater down was swimming.

I yelled "swimmer!" and peeled out to give him a hand.  The eddy we had
all been waiting in was long and wide, so I gave him my stern and
started to pull him in to shore.

The river widens significantly as it hits the bay, but it still had
tremendous flow.  I couldn't accelerate enough with the swimmer's legs
in the water, and we missed the eddy.

Oh $#!T... we were now headed for the docks/slips in front of the
condos.  I hit the end of the first dock, the swimmer was behind me,
still in the flow, so he let go.  I got swept under the dock and rolled
up just in time to hit the next dock.  I leaned into the dock to keep
the upstream edge out of the water.  I was holding a hard edge, but the
dock was too high and the current too strong to hold it,and again was
swept under to have to combat roll up again on the other side.  Repeat
that fun crap again with the third slip.  By the fourth one, I was
getting swept deeper into the slips, and was too pooped to try the
edging drills again, so I grabbed the diagunal brace on the support
pillar as I went under.  The boat was still hanging from my sprayskirt,
so I pulled the grab loop and let it go.

I now was hanging from the edge of the dock in about 4 kts of current. 
I saw a cleat on the dock about 2' out from where I was, so I was able
to slide over and up to grab it.  Once I got both hands on the cleat, I
was able to reach the cleat on the far side.  The current, though was
still pulling on my legs so strong that I was unable to pull myself up.
 Aiiigghh!!

Now I felt royally screwed!  I slipped back down to the diagonal brace
and rested while I floated out in the current.  The top of the aock was
slick and smooth weathered wood.  The lengthwise supports underneath
were 4x10's, and too fat to grip.  I spied some rotten vinyl dock
edging that had room for two fingers in the ends.  "Please don't tear!"
I thought, as I gingerly worked my way from bumper to bumper.  After
about 8' of slow progress, I saw the waves lapping on gravel at the end
of the slip, and slowly eased one leg down to touch the bottom--phew!!

I staggered up on shore...it felt like an eternity, but was probably no
longer than 4 minutes.

I ran down the docks to where the swimmer was already out on a slip and
attaching a throwline to his kayak which had snagged on a tree that was
wedged between two dock supports and was under about a foot of water. 
My blood ran cold. The swimmer, Mike could have ended up there...so
could I have.

He thanked me profusely for grabbing him out of the current, but I
wasn't exactly ready to accept any gratitude.  I told him that I had
risked both of our hides and that I was glad he was okay.  We were able
to let his boat slide under the log, and I grabbed his bow loop as it
came up.

A third boater meanwhile was bulldozing my boat to shore where it was a
simple matter to empty the boat and head up to the boat ramp.

Conclusions:
It is whitewater "conuentional wisdom" to tow a swimmer to shore/an
eddy.  I caught him in the middle of the current.  Afterwards, I
checked and the north side of the bay was calmer--although from the
water, there was little splashing apparent on either side, so the
current locations were very deceptive with no clear eddy line.  The far
side might have been a more suitable eddy to tow to.

I probably should have stayed in the middle of the current with the
swimmer and done a TX rescue...this shift to "sea kayaker conventional
wisdom" likely would have confused my rescuee, but I know I could have
easily done it (and talked him through it--hey, I do it with novice sea
kayakers all the time).  Once the bay really widened, the current was
about 1 knot, and we wouldn't have swept anywhere dangerous.  The most
dangerous spot was where we were swept.

I'm still kicking myself a little, but hindsight is always 20-20.

I want to be the best kayaker I can be--not just a sea kayaker, not
just a whitewater kayaker, but a good kayaker in general.  I definitely
failed there in not being able to see what would be most effective
overall.  I spend a lot of time in classes and solo practicing
scenarios--"what could happen, what would I do"  (Like the movie Speed:
"Pop quiz, hotshot, what would you do?")  It's apparent I need to spend
more time thinking about possibilities in whitewater, too.  It's not
the scenarios that you've practiced that get you--it's the freak ones
that pop up, that you don't have a rehearsed set of steps to follow. 
You must react and make spur-of-the-moment decisions.

I reacted well enough to rescue myself, but I didn't react well enough
to follow through with the swimmer.  I also broke rule #1 in any
rescue: don't make a second victim.

Once we were flushed into the bay, this stopped being a whitewater
rescue.  We were in moving, but not white water.  He wasn't going to
get flushed into any holes, etc.  There were sweepers, disguised as
docks, not trees.  In whitewater, you generally want to "get the
swimmer out of the water".  In the sea, you want to "get the swimmer
back into his boat".  In retrospect, getting him back into the boat
would have been much, much, much easier.

Before run #2, boater #3 and I told everyone else to tow swimmers to
river right!!

I also need to take a swiftwater rescue class.

Safe paddling all,

Shawn

Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
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