Safety boaters needed this weekend
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Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11958
Printed Date: 15 Nov 2025 at 12:26pm
Topic: Safety boaters needed this weekend
Posted By: edickerson2
Subject: Safety boaters needed this weekend
Date Posted: 02 May 2012 at 3:46pm
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Hey everyone,
UW kayak club is putting on a beginner class this weekend and they need safety boaters for Sat and Sun. You would be volunteering to safety boat on some class II whitewater on Sat and/or Sun. On Sat they will be somewhere near the Middle Middle (flows will depend where) and on Sun probably the lower Sky (from rafters take out to Big Eddy). After safety boating in the morning, there will be a Middle Middle or SF Sno trip (Sat) and a Sky trip (Sun) for the safety boaters. If interested, please email Jeff at bowmanjs@uw.edu. The bigger need is for safety boaters on Sunday. Thanks for volunteering!! See you on the water! ~Emily |
Replies:
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 04 May 2012 at 8:36am
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Cool-
As someone who has extensive experience as a safety kayaker on hundereds of private and commercial trips, allow me to share a few points... First, you can not effectively safety boat in a playboat. You just can't. Sure, you may rescue a paddle or two in a flat pool, but rescuing swimmers is not very effective due to the reduced volume. Also, one of the primary roles of a "safety boater" is to be a chase boat. That means you need a faster boat that can track, and again with regards to rescuing swimmers you need volume for them to hang onto your boat, rest, ect. Second, a good safety boater has eyes in the back of his or her head and they are wide open. Experienced safety boaters know where trouble will occur before it does. When a novice flips, and manages to roll up after a few attempts, the first thing they should see is you looking at them. If the novice swims, as soon as their head pops up the first thing they should see is you looking at them, as you are already charging toward them to help. Novice boaters need to have faith in the peeps leading them in a new and strange environment. These practices, consistently employed will instill that faith. You have a responsibility to not only look after them, but to set an example of how to lead beginners, because someday they will be leading novices downstrsm as well. Got a lot of "the blind leafing the blind" out there. Oops that was a typo I swear! 
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Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 04 May 2012 at 8:40am
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Oh- and one more thing:
If Boofing Betty and/or her entourage of boating bimbos show up offering to help you, I wouldn't accept. Because they "might not really be there" when the sh*t goes down. 
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Posted By: Mark47n
Date Posted: 04 May 2012 at 9:24am
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I'll second what JP has to say. As another experienced safety boater - though more in the surf zone than in WW It's all about being able to get in fast to place yourself where you'll be most useful rather than where the most fun will be for you, the safety boater. Sometimes it also means placing yourself where things can get a bit uncomfortable because it's where you'll be most useful. ------------- You mean I'm supposed to wear something UNDER my spray skirt? Where's the fun in that? |