On July 23-24, 2005, twelve paddlers traveled from Chicago, Omaha, Spencer, Muscatine, Ames and the Des Moines metro to Walnut Woods State Park for a super weekend at the IWC Swiftwater Rescue Clinic. Attendees learned about a broad variety of rescue gear and techniques. Clinic instructors, Walter Felton and Dee Tucker, who drove 11 hours from Arkansas to lead this clinic, were real pros who taught with great clarity and patience. They demonstrated considerable knowledge and commitment to safety in whitewater boating.
Classroom presentations covered a lot of material, but always emphasized that the best rescues were the ones that were avoided and that rescuers needed to make sure that they did not become additional victims. Attendees learned and practiced skills such as throwing rescue ropes, tying special knots, and using ropes in a variety of scenarios including freeing foot-entrapped swimmers and setting up anchor and mechanical advantage systems (e.g. z-drags) for unpinning boats. A special segment was included on how to use an empty kayak to rescue someone trapped in the hole below a low-head dam.
On-river training included wading individually and in multi-rescuer pyramid formation at Commerce Ledges. A "managed" strainer was constructed in the river to enable the attendees to experience first hand the strength of flowing water and the danger posed by strainers. Team-based rescue training included a tethered swimming rescue (live bait) and in-stream, boat-based rescues. Dee easily pinned a designated canoe on the boulder at the first ledge. The first team assessed the situation, rescued the "boater" and started to unpin the boat. The exercise was interrupted when an attendee stepped on a fishing lure and attention turned to hook extraction and first aid. With time at a premium the second team turned in a solid effort to safely dislodge the pinned canoe.
Attendees and instructors endured 115 degree heat index on Saturday and a more tolerable 105 degrees on Sunday. It was danged hot, to where one would sweat rivers while simply standing in the shade of the large walnut trees in the park. Constant hydration was the weekend's watch word.
Commerce Ledges proved to be an adequate, but not perfect, teaching spot. Several participants repeatedly bumped their behinds in shallow water on when playing as a swimming victim. More water would have been better.
On Saturday the clinic witnessed a total of four recreational paddlers' canoes dump on the Raccoon, three of them at Commerce Ledges. The swimmers had very long swims. Walter used his canoe to assist the occupants of one canoe to the near side of the river. They had been swept out of their boat by a strainer - no life jackets or shoes …
In conclusion everyone needs to frequently practice these skills and techniques, or one will quickly lose the ability to use the skills in a rescue situation on the water. Additionally everyone really needs to work on river communication skills, because that's where everything really comes together. See for yourself -- just try to say something to people several dozen yards away over noise of the rushing water. It is impossible without good signals that everyone understands.
Last updated August 1, 2005
