River: Pigs Trough on the Rangitata
I copped some criticism for the late bagging of the paddler in the clip below (from the 38 second mark).



The reasons I held back with bagging him:
1. with both hands on his paddle what was the point
2. do you really want to entangle a paddler with a whole lot of rope?
3. he was the 3rd paddler in a row to get stuck here and the previous 2 paddlers had both flushed out (this guy did put in a pretty heroic effort though)

Any thoughts or comments....

Hi,

During the thrashing, did the kayaker have eye-contact with you or not?

From a SRT / ongoing raft guide point-of-view, ropes and moving water are always risky and should not be considered a cure-all in rescue situations.

I'm not a pro, so please consider these words as my thoughst stemming out of the training I've received thus far.

As you said the paddler was still holding his paddle and, more importantly in my eyes, he was occupied with the hole. I can't be sure, but I'd say he wasn't in contact with you and hadn't signalled for you to throw the rope.
Never throw the rope to an unexpectant 'victim'. You have one good shot (second throw is always crappier) to make a difference. What's the point of throwing the rope to an unaware victim risking, as you put it, to get him entangled and possibly into more of a sitaution than he was already in.

I'll repeat: never throw the rope to someone not expecting it. There have been people hit on the head by a thrown bag without contact beforehand that didn't get the rope. The throwers first throw was thus wasted. It might seem farfetched, but potentially that rope could have entangled the swimmer and somehow got caught on the riverbed then pulling the swimmer below...

Ropes and swiftwater are dangerous and should not be taken lightly.

Just my tuppence worth.

-Kevin

I like Kevins way of thinking. Fast moving water and ropes can be very dangerous and tossing a line to someone who does not know it is coming is probably a wasted throw. Should the rope land in front of the person the current would probably wiskit away before they noticed it or let go of the paddle with one hand to grab it.
You made a jugement call and that is what your there for. Many rafting clients are first time paddlers and when things get tricky they forget the safety talks stuff anyway. Cheers Greg

Whilst he's in the hole and still in his boat, he's attempting to self-rescue. Once this fails, he'll swim. As soon as that happens you want to get him a rope quick smart.

It was hard to see from the video what was going on. He was getting worked for a bit, and still in his kayak. One he came out was a rope thrown? It should have been.

People only pull once they have run out of breathe and are tired or are simply panicking, so they'll have trouble swimming through turbulent water to save them self. This is why you need a rope. Furthermore, if you throw a rope to somebody in their kayak, they'll only get tangled up with their boat, rope and paddle, which will cause more trouble to the paddler.

No eye contact.
Bagged him the second he came out the hole - for some reason he then chose to ignore the rope.
Thanks for the feedback.

people do the funniest things at times. I am surprised at the number of paddlers that don't know what to do even when you nail then with the rope. Greg

I'd say you acted correctly.

Watching the video I noticed that the swimmer seemed to ignore the rope, but I wasn't sure how close to him your throw had landed. Was going to add something along the lines of trying to throw the bag over the swimmers head but didn't due to the uncertainty in the film.

Opinions divide on whether it is better to throw a bag slightly on the upstream or downstream side of a swimmer. Surface currents are slower than the current about 1ft below (the current that most of a swimmer's mass is in). But a swimmer is exposed to more different laminars on different levels, potentially cancelling each other out and slowing his progress. So it's best just to throw the bag right at him, over his head (so the swimmer doesn't get the idea of grabbing the bag or attached loop -> ~20m of rope that still has to play out)


I'd say the video falls into the second category. You seemed to have thrown the bag right at him. As I said I wasn't sure from the video whether the throw was on the mark or to short. Anyway. He missed the rope, or ignored it, and the rope was then swept downstream away from him - against all doctrine about laminar currents. (Just some food for thought)

Ithink you did the right thing and waited untill he swam a rope when your in your kayak would help at all but as he swan you threw the rope there was nothing much else you could/ should of done

This is a tough call.
I would say:
While a kayaker is still in the boat throwing a rope only makes sense if the kayaker has eyecontact and you can pull him out of the hole with the rope. It does not make sens to try to pull some one over a huge boiler line.

While swimming you can better try to pull some one over the line, but you have to believe that the paddler knows he is being rescued before you trow the rope.

On the entanglement point. When you are securing a resiculating hole you should try to estimate how much rope you need to reach the paddler. It makes no sense giving a victim 10 extra meters of rope to wrap around him during the would be rescue. So if you are standing 3 meters away, in theory, you only need 3 meters of rope. Throwing the full 20 meters in there might make things difficult.

But in the end getting worked because of a late throw is still better than not getting the line which is thrown at you and even better than getting tied up during the swim for your life.

In NZ we tend to use tape/slings for the close protection situations - not good when a swimmer first has to go through 20 m of rope before anything happens.
Also handy when securing your kayak in a micro eddy against a rock face and you are trying to exit.

good call i say.
the paddler was trying to self rescue

and if you had thrown a rope to him while he was in his kayak and he had dropped his paddles and grabbed the rope, you may still not have been able to pull him from the hole
paddler+no paddles=not good

I'd say it was a good call... they way I'd like a rope if it were me 'worked out of my boat' in a hole as in the video.

Remember to practice swimming, throwing, and catching and swimming whilst with rope...

well looks like its all been covered I would also agree with what the majority of people have said. cool little clip I like it nice one.