Please note South Wales Kayak Anglers(SWKA) are not instructors of Kayaking procedures and any information gathered from this site is to be used as an aid to formal instruction provided by your local paddle club as advertised through Canoe Wales.
During the Summer of 2009 Anglers Afloat team members(Paul Darnsarf, Richi, John and Helen) kindly gave up their time to provide us with instruction regarding this drill. This tution has proved invaluable and we have laid down the principles within this article to aid all members of SWKA/paddling community.
SWKA place kayak safety as top priority before any paddling, and as you can see by the safety checklist(kindly provided by AnglersAfloat) its recommended you carry a large array of items to cover many eventualities. Even with all this preparation there is one thing that a lot of people overlook and that is the Self Rescue.
The Self Rescue can be an easy task to carry out if you have been shown correctly but can be very difficult if the incorrect technique is used. SWKA will be completing lots of self rescue practice drills throughout the summer, but for those of you that cannot make it we have done this small article to show the basics.
On entering the water the golden rule is try not to panic. We go by the word GUT which stands for ;
GRAB - UPTURN - THINK
As you can see on capsize in Photo 1, the first Jerry(cwrw) has done is Grabbed the paddle which inturn maintains his contact with the Kayak via his paddle leash. This illustrates the need to always have the paddle leashed as in strong currents it could prove invaluable as the kayak trys to race away from you on capsize. Jerry quickly uses the paddle leash to draw the kayak towards him and ensure he is in contact with the Kayak as soon as possible.
Jerry then reaches under the kayak with one arm to hold the grab handle on the opposite side to the kayak. At this stage its important to ensure that the wind and the swell or waves are behind you. This ensures when completing this manouvre the elements will assist you in the action as oppose to making the job alot more difficult and potentially causing an injury if the yak came back down on you. Having a firm hold of the handle and using his arms to rotate the Kayak simuntaneously the Kayak is then quickly Upturned. It is during this stage that the Kayak will take on most water, so it is vital that this action is done as soon as possible.
Having Grabbed hold of the paddle/kayak, and Upturned to stop the flooding of the kayak, you are now able to Think of next course of action and make decisions in a calm rational manner. The big decision at this stage would be to make a Pan, Pan call to the RNLI using your VHF if you deem it nessesary. Remember that the Pan, Pan call is to make the RNLI aware of a potential situation. The RNLI would rather hear from you at this stage than try and make out a muffled message should you exhaust yourself or worse have an accident on re-entry. Making communictaion with the RNLI at this stage ensures they can maintain comms with you until your safe re-entry at which point you can confirm your safe and well. At this stage the Pan Pan call would be stood down.
As you can see above Jerry has turned the kayak over and is THINKING about his next action, he then pushes down in the water and lets his PFD propel himself out of the water and over the kayak, grabbing on to the grab handle on the opposite side. At this stage you stay there leaning over the yak as you can see in the next picture:
When you are in this position you are safe and you can stay there until you get breath back. Having regained composure roll toward the seat so you face the sky and sit up so you are sitting side saddle. The next movement is easy you just turn yourself around on to your seat and establish previous paddle position.
Please try to take time out on your local shallow water in calm conditions to practice this, like most things practice makes perfect and inevitably "It could save your life".
Safe paddling.
Edd Gibson
