L3/L4 Swiftwater Rescue Weekend
| River: | Cape Fear |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 06/01/2024 |
The Carolina Canoe Club hosted their first Safety and Rescue clinic of the year this past weekend and we couldn’t have asked for better weather or river level. I consider myself lucky to have had the awesome mentors in this club that resulted in me now being an instructor and privileged to teach this class. This was another split course, teaching level 3 River Safety and Rescue on Saturday and the Level 4 Swiftwater Rescue material on Sunday. As an instructor I like doing our club courses this way as it allows those who cannot or do not wish to attend two days can attend just the River Safety and Rescue portion but also those who have attended one of my courses in the past year to attend just the L4 portion on Sunday.
On Saturday, Day 1 we had 8 CCC members (Stan, Connor, Mike Radio, James L, Steven, James R, Randy S, and Will) attending the class and one CCC member (Micheal) assisted me in the class. Technically we had 9 participating if you count Rescue Randy but he really wasn’t very active during class. We also had 2 students from the Girl Scouts (Angie and Amanda) who now require L3 River Safety and Rescue Assessments on top of other certifications for them to lead a trip on a Class II River. The last student (Savannah) was a guest of mine as she is getting ready to lead a summer camp. Having mixed discipline paddlers in a class is always great to allow many different perspectives. I also want to point out that 4 of the students are teachers, 1 of which gave me laminated knot tying diagram sheets and wrote notes on my dry erase board. I can’t prove it, but I think Steve Johnson and David Freeman knew and had something to do with her giving me the laminated knot tying cards.
We had a level of 2.4ft on the Cape Fear River while we played at Campbell’s Falls. Sunny, mid 80s, 74 deg water temperatures. You cannot ask for a better setting for this class. After a great on-land class and more questions than any other class we ate some food and then headed to the river. I got finger pricked when demonstrating the swimming techniques, we waded, my phone finally tapping out, we swam a rapid, I busted my shin when I made a poorly timed entry, rope throwing, way more than 2 ropes floating all around the river to include one with some Kong on the end of it, Mr Tree the strainer bar made his debut, swimmers were violated by rocks before Mr Tree and then a full on rescue scenario with Micheal and Rescue Randy playing dumb that brought out all the fun, at least for me as the instructor. After a longer day than normal we wrapped up and the class seemed to all be pleased with the day. The only major victims were my shin and my phone.
On Sunday, Day 2 we ended up with a level of 2.3ft on the mighty roaring Class II ish rapid of the Cape Fear River. Partly Cloudy, mid 80s again and still a very warm river. Stan, Connor, Mike, James, Steven, James, Micheal (as a student) returned, and Steve, Clara, and Mitch joined the team. Accompanied by a flavored rice burning phone that is still not willing to participate and a 8 inch raspberry down my leg, we talked Rescue PFDs, worked on some dry land live bait and v lower walkthroughs, Connor invited the ants to the party, many other students joined in on the ant party with Connor, We pinned Rescue Randy in his Larry Boat in the dry “Zach River” ditch and worked on some exciting cinches and split bag tosses where a few students tried to take me out. We set up a z drag without the instructor’s gear and then ate some lunch and headed to the river. The students got a chance to play a little on the rapid since we had time, and everyone was whitewater paddlers and Stan prayed that Connor didn’t like the Hot Whip. We then went into a scenario to kick off the water works and James remembered why you don’t go within arms distance of a panicking swimmer but unfortunately it was after he was upside down, Stan remembered his boat is the worst for swimmer tow, Mike went against all standards and recovered the Larry Boat that has no float bags, well actually no anything in it and thus barely floats.
Rescue Randy failed to do his only job of exiting his kayak but was able to be saved by Connor. After many many many many minutes to recover the Larry Boat with no float bags we were able to get back to the regularly scheduled class. First up was the fun Live Bait where many learned they need a better timer in their head and others realized they were not as strong as they thought when trying to hold on to that rescue swimmer’s rope. We were able to save a few of the swimmers, a few almost lost their pants, and many got grabbed in all kinds of places. Next, after a challenge accepted and won by the instructor, we went into the V lower where the very first attempt ended up with one team pulled into the water except for James L who ended up being a big man anchor for most of the class. After going back over to help brace James we got back to waterboarding v lowered rescuers. Many found the scary air pocket, a couple drank some high-quality Cape Fear H2O, Steve tried to release his adjustment straps, and we ended up with another anchor point pulled in. After yet another instructor crossover we were able to get everyone down the V Lower and move on to the next task. Mr Tree came back out to play, and he wanted deep water so the team’s scenario job was to set up anchor points and move Mr Tree out into the deeper water using adjustment hitches. This new hangout position turned out to be perfect. Upon doing strainer drills this time many could not use the bottom as much as day one and the log walk technique proved to be a fun spectacle where Connor took home the speed trophy for quick breaths in the little air pockets all the way across and Steve took the Gold for the breast stroke as he came up for air and went back down again each time but made it across and James R got the Scuba Gold for staying underwater the entire log walk. At this same time the large group of CCC paddlers were returning on their trip and they were supposed to give my unsuspecting students another impromptu rescue scenario but between my students doing an outstanding job of seeing them coming and trying to wave off the paddlers and a complete failure on my contacts in the group it did not happen. Mr Tree was then relieved of his duties, and we wrapped up day 2 and the weekend.
I can say that I had a great time this weekend meeting new paddlers and seeing old students and fellow paddlers on the water for some fun learning. If you are ever out there paddling with these outstanding people know they are capable of saving you. Now the question is, are you capable of saving them? When was the last time you attended a course? Next one is August 24 and 25th! If that doesn’t work, get a group of 6 or more that can attend another day and we will see if we can get the club to approve a date.
Lastly, If you have taken a course that has really helped you and are interested in becoming an instructor to pay back that support, we have some instructor classes coming up in the region and the CCC can help you with that goal. You can get with me or with the Safety Chair for more information if you are interested.
William