For those that creek, carrying a webbing sling with a beaner ON YOU is essential. I use mine all the time. Its perfect for setting anchors around trees or rocks for a mechanical advatage system, Lowering boats, or assisting in hiking out of a canyon. Its quicker to deploy than ropes, and as you can see in the video... the perfect quick setup for a manual extraction.

While we are on the subject ill also say this: If possible, keep your throw bag between your legs, easily accessable to remove. So often i see paddlers completely unprepared to help in a rescue due to gear being stuffed behind the seat, or not even having the proper gear at all. Seconds count, and your gear buried deep in your boat helps no one. Keep your pulley, beaners and prussics in your PFD, throw bag up front, and wear or carry your sling. If you paddle long enough on whitewater you will use all of these.

Here is a link and a website that Daan & Jess from NZ run. Daan is one of the best in the business at rescue scenarios, and has tons of good info if you want to learn and grow your skills set. check out the whole series, or go to page 13 for ideas.


http://dreamingofwhitewater.com/resources/Dreaming-of-Whitewater-Magazines/DW-Issue-Four/DWIssueFourLR.pdf

Edited by Fish - 04 Nov 2013 at 6:12pm

Yeah Barny! Nice rescue

Good points Ellingferd.

I'd say the most important thing the guy did was being there in his boat actually watching the sh*t go down, followed by him paddling over to the bank and getting out promptly to take action.

Unfortunately most paddlers these days just keep bombing downstream and hardly even look behind them. Yup. MOST paddlers. You can carry all the gear you want till your boat is submerged it won't matter if you aren't close enough to the action to get there when the sh*t goes down.

But good points raised about keeping it on your person- very important.

Probably the best reason for gopro cams and yet an overlooked one is their value in sharing and learning from these incidents

Edited by jP - 10 Nov 2013 at 11:39pm

Yeah, Barney was spot on here in this rescue. He reacted immediately, and was prepared to deal when $hit hit the fan. His reaction time likely saved that guys life.

Having the gear as JP said, is only half the battle. You have to have the self awareness and anticipation of situations to be able to react like that, and the abilty to use that gear. Knowing where the hazards are, and being in position to assist, whether setting safety, or just communicating with team members about hazards and how to deal with them.

When I was first learning to paddle the Little white Salmon years ago, I would always call Ryan Scott in the CRG. He was the safest paddler I had ever met. By this I mean he was ready, capable and anticipated problems before they ever happened. I saw paddlers pin and swim many times and Ryan was always out of his boat, rope in hand and managing the situation before most of us even knew what was happening. what stood out was that he always boated well under his ability level, understood where the main hazards were, sized up the group, and positioned himself to help just in case, ALWAYS. These are learned behaviors. Rescue class doesn't teach this, experience does.   

I feel lucky to paddle with guys like Ryan Scott, Chris Totten, Nick Hinds and others. These guys are clutch when $hit hits the fan, I trust them with my life, and know they are group aware when creeking. Do your paddling buddies have the gear and knowledge to help you?

Edited by Fish - 05 Nov 2013 at 12:15pm