- Your Online Kayaking Source
The Scoop
So Apryle and I went to a fun seminar at Canoecopia presented by Kelly Blades. He pretty much tossed out the T Rescue as too much work and not ideal for extreme conditions.
In its place, he suggested an alternative rescue technique...the scoop (or "hands of god"). Basically, Victim is in the water, holding onto the swamped kayak. Rescuer paddles up on the other side of the boat. Doesn't matter which way Rescuer is facing. Rescuer tilts the swamped boat towards Victim, flooding the cockpit. Victim floats in on his/her side and lays back. Rescuer rolls the swamped boat up. Rescuer/Victim pop the skirt on and/or pump the boat out as conditions permit.
Everywhere I've read about this technique, it is suggested for an unconscious victim. We tried it, and it works just fine if both parties are conscious.
Pros: Really easy, we accomplished this rescue in a grand total of 20 seconds first try. It gets almost all of the victim out of the water really fast. No awkward shimmying up into the dry, righted kayak. I imagine you could do this under almost any conditions.
Cons: Victim's boat ends up with a bit of water in the cockpit. Relatively easily pumped out, though. And you -can- paddle a swamped boat, if it has enough flotation.
So, what are your thoughts?
In its place, he suggested an alternative rescue technique...the scoop (or "hands of god"). Basically, Victim is in the water, holding onto the swamped kayak. Rescuer paddles up on the other side of the boat. Doesn't matter which way Rescuer is facing. Rescuer tilts the swamped boat towards Victim, flooding the cockpit. Victim floats in on his/her side and lays back. Rescuer rolls the swamped boat up. Rescuer/Victim pop the skirt on and/or pump the boat out as conditions permit.
Everywhere I've read about this technique, it is suggested for an unconscious victim. We tried it, and it works just fine if both parties are conscious.
Pros: Really easy, we accomplished this rescue in a grand total of 20 seconds first try. It gets almost all of the victim out of the water really fast. No awkward shimmying up into the dry, righted kayak. I imagine you could do this under almost any conditions.
Cons: Victim's boat ends up with a bit of water in the cockpit. Relatively easily pumped out, though. And you -can- paddle a swamped boat, if it has enough flotation.
So, what are your thoughts?
Tags: god, hands, kayak, of, rescue, scoop
Views: 18
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Geoff Jennings on -
I agree. I think, or it's solo equivalent, the re-enter and roll, are easier and more likely to work in most real world, rough situations than many of the assisted rescues.
But I think it's important to have a full "bag of tricks" to draw from. You can use and adjust as needed.
Geoff
-
Permalink Reply by Phil Magistro on -
No doubt. It's a pain in the rear to pump out a swamped cockpit. So I can see a place for the alphabet rescues in calm water, but if I could only learn one rescue, I think this would be it. But it was -really- easy to get Victim back in the boat and upright.
-
Permalink Reply by Faith on -
Could you post a video of this? I think it would really be nice to see it performed.
-
Permalink Reply by Chris Watson on -
The scoop works. One of my clubs hosted a survival skills session over the summer and I attended and our final exercise was an all-in. I had a simulated broken right arm and this was the method we used to get me back in the boat. The hardest parts of the procedure, I found, were the rescuer having the faith that the extrem lean and weight shift required to the roll the boat and then right it during the scoop would not entail them going into the water themselves and the second was having the victim cooperate by laying their weight into the boat enough to reduce the center of gravity to aid the rescuer.
© 2012 Created by Geoff Jennings.
