CWWC Intermediate River Rescue Course

Day 1

• river safety gear
• river swimming
• mechanical advantage systems
• moving around river environment
• unconcious swimmer rescue
• stabilisation line rescue
• getting rope across river
• live bait rescue
• live bait tether

Day 2

• raft safety basics
• getting back onto raft
• getting onto flipped raft
• using flip line to flip raft
• getting onto/from raft from kayak
• flip raft from kayak with kayak attached to it
• getting rope across river from raft/kayak
• raft tether
• using knife to cut rope in river rescue scenario
• swim over strainer
• from from kayak over strainer
• raft + kayaks river trip convoy - safety kayakers, group management
• raft leading
• use of mechanical advantage systems in pinned kayak/raft rescue scenarios
• moving around river to get to pinned kayak/foot entrapment
• swimming + throw bagging

Key Take Outs

The following are my personal key take outs and things I want to improve on.

Move fast slowly. Moving too fast may lead into slow results. Move fast slowly.

Learned that 3:1 z-drag can be turned into 6:1 without additional gear. Regular practice needed.

Practice mechanical advantage systems. I find them much harder in river scenarios than when doing “dry run” practice only.

I could not get onto raft from water. Neither on raft nor on flipped raft. Need to practice this until consistent results are achieved.

When gear breaks or changes its way of function it may affect safety. Changes in the gear setup can lead to unpredictable outcomes and I need to be more aware of this.

I learned that I can move around the river relatively safely when I am in control of my movement. Once the control is lost, I must switch immediately to passive or agressive swimming to avoid foot entrapment. Never try to regain the control. This is where the shit can go down.

By doing a river rescue course you can to use your gear in various scenarios so that you can fine tune it and you know what and how works and what does not.

Repeating river rescue courses every season helps to cement the knowledge and fine tune rescue gear and setup.