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 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Shawn, Thanks for the story, and the analysis which is right on the mark. I'm glad you made it all right, as that is a scary situation. A couple of questions for you though... what kayak were you paddling, and did you tell the swimmer to kick? If you were in a shorter playboat, it is extremely difficult to gain hull speed enough to tow a swimmer. However, if the swimmer kicks hard, their body rises to the surface and becomes much easier to tow. Also, the kicking does add a little forward motion, but the main benefit is their body lifting and reducing drag. When I rescue swimmers, I am yelling at them to kick like mad. The difference in speed is significant. Cheers, Kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
--- Kevin Whilden <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org> wrote: >A couple of questions for you though... what kayak were you paddling, >and did you tell the swimmer to kick? Hi Kevin, I was paddling my old Perception Pirouette...I figured I wanted all the hull speed I could get for the race. I usually paddle a Dagger Redline. In retrospect, the guys who won the race were actually in rodeo boats, and they surfed the waves out of the eddies...making the ferry across a lot easier than those of us who tried to muscle across. Another problem I had was that the swimmer was trying to hold both his boat and paddle. I told him to hand me his paddle and I doubled up our paddles so he could simply hang onto both boats. I think this cut my power a bit, too. >However, if the swimmer kicks hard, their body rises to the surface and >becomes much easier to tow. I'd never thought of this--thanks for the beta. Shawn Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Kevin wrote: <SNIP>>>>If you were in a shorter playboat, it is extremely difficult to gain hull speed enough to tow a swimmer.<<<<<SNIP> It ain't the length of the boat that's the problem here. A human sea anchor is going to limit the speed of any length kayak to way below its potential "hull speed" no matter how horizontal the swimmer gets of how hard he kicks (even with swim fins on) he is going to keep the kayak from reaching its hull speed. I agree with everything else Kevin said about getting into a sleeker horizontal swimming position and helping by swimming or kicking as best you can while still hanging on to the stern of the kayak. You'll be able to move even faster if the swimmer can quickly get his torso up on the back deck with only his legs dragging in the water. BTW Jolie, I must be "full of it" too because I don't remember ever losing my roll more than once at a time after I had first learned it. Most of those failures were due to some change in the conditions or some unfamiliar equipment I was using. I think Eskimo rolling is a lot like riding a bicycle, not something you forget how to do even after a long lay-off. I think Jed did a great job of analyzing the most likely reasons for your experiences with the roll. Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Matt wrote:=0D Kevin wrote:=0D <SNIP>>>>If you were in a shorter playboat, it is extremely difficult to=0D gain hull speed enough to tow a swimmer.<<<<<SNIP>=0D =0D <<It ain't the length of the boat that's the problem here. A human sea anchor=0D is going to limit the speed of any length kayak to way below its potentia= l=0D "hull speed" no matter how horizontal the swimmer gets of how hard he kicks>>=0D =0D With modern playboats, it ain't the length, it's the volume, or lack of i= t. If a swimmer grabs the bow of, say, a Liquid Logic Session, it sinks. Tha= t's not a flaw, it's a feature for playing, but it makes rescues difficult if you're standing on end.=0D =0D Steve [demime 0.92b removed an attachment of type image/gif] *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Broze" <mkayaks_at_oz.net> > Kevin wrote: > <SNIP>>>>If you were in a shorter playboat, it is extremely difficult to > gain hull speed enough to tow a swimmer.<<<<<SNIP> > > It ain't the length of the boat that's the problem here. Based on my years of experience towing swimmers to shore in whitewater, I have noticed a dramatic difference in the speed with which a old-school boat (e.g. dancer) can tow a swimmer vs. a new school rodeo kayak. I don't think there is any other rational explanation other than the length, although I couldn't begin to explain the physics of why it is so. I have thought about this for a long time, but haven't come up with anything plausible. Matt, your the kayaking hydrodynamics expert, so think of something that supports my viewpoint. Perhaps it will be right. Also, I don't agree with a different suggestion that the difference in speed is the lower volume stern being sucked down by the swimmer, and thus changing the rocker. Short creekboats have just as much trouble towing swimmers as short playboats. However perhaps the distance between the paddler and the swimmer attachment point (e.g. grabloop) is the key factor. A Dancer would have a good 5 feet of distance, whereas a playboat has three feet. If we substituted a rope for a boat, is it harder to tow a swimmer using a three foot rope than using a six foot rope? > You'll be > able to move even faster if the swimmer can quickly get his torso up on the > back deck with only his legs dragging in the water. Not with a rodeo boat, which will go vertical quickly with a swimmer on the back deck (assuming the swimmer could even fit on the deck, which he will not on the new <6' kayaks). On a tangentially related story. I recently rescued a swimmer from a boily, whirlpool style eddyline. I didn't have enough speed in my 7' Booster 60 to get him out of the eddyline squeeze, and thus we had to go back through the 'rinse cycle' to make it to shore. He was sucked straight down under water while holding onto the stern of my boat. He remembers looking up through the clear water at the waters surface 3-4' above him. Meanwhile, I was being spun in wild circles by the whirlpools, with the bow of my boat pointing almost straight up in the air and the water going up to my neck. It was a good thing that I spend a lot of time squirting and playboating, because I had enough skill to brace and remain upright during the maytagging. After 10-15 seconds, we were through the whirlpools and ejected into the relatively calm eddy, where my friend beached himself on a rock and enjoyed breathing dry air for a good 15 minutes. If I'd been in a longer boat, I probably could have towed him right to shore out of the squeeze. Cheers, kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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