[Paddlewise] Entrapment

Happy New Years fellow paddlers:

What opinions exist on how to rescue capsized paddlers who are entrapped in 
their boats either from panic or some physical obstacle.   I'm only aware of 
two rescues for entrapment, the eskimo bow rescue (giving the bow of your boat 
to the capsized paddler, who can then use it to right themselves) or a "hands 
of god" (coming up parallel to the capsized paddler, reaching underneath the 
capsized boat, grabbing them by the life vest and physically righting them)   I 
have only practiced these rescues and I wonder how well these might work in a 
real situation.   The Eskimo bow rescue requires the cooperation of the 
capsized paddler to work, and if they were unable to cooperate from either lack of 
knowledge or simple panic then it would not be effective.  The "hands of god" 
rescue doesn't require cooperation, but it can be a difficult rescue to 
execute.  The only way I have made this rescue work is by physically pulling the 
capsized paddler on to their back deck and maximizing my leverage by ensuring that 
their head and torso come out of the water last.  While this is possible with 
an unconscious paddler, or in my case a paddler pretending to be unconscious, 
I do not think it would work well with a conscious panicked paddler.  Their 
natural instance would be to struggle and pull their heads up.    

Has anyone dealt with these entrapment situations in real life, if so what 
has worked best?   

Dave
Southern Cal
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