SECOND EDITION Franco Ferrero WHITE WATER SAFETY & RESCUE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM: Loel Collins Ray Goodwin Dave Luke Geraint Rowlands Pesda Press ltd Wales www.pesdapress.com First published in Great Britain 1998 by Pesda Press Tan y Coed Canol Ceunant Caernarfon Gwynedd LL55 4RN Reprinted 2000 2nd Edition March 2006 Reprinted with minor improvements 2008 Reprinted 2012 ©Copyright 1998 Franco Ferrero ISBN-10: 0-9547061-5-3 ISBN-13: 978-0-954-70615-9 The Authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other­ wise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Printed in Poland www.hussarbooks.pl About the Author Franco Ferrero divides his work time between managing Pesda Press and freelance coaching. He is qualified as a BCU Level 5 Coach (Sea and Inland), is a REC first aid provider, a Rescue 3 Instructor, and holds the Mountaineering Instructor Certificate. His passions are white water and sea kayaking, rock and ice climbing, ski-mountain­ eering and sailing. He has paddled throughout the UK and in many parts of the world including Nepal, Scandinavia, the European Alps, Peru and Western Canada. Franco Ferrero Contributors Loel Collins Ray Goodwin Dave Luke Geraint Rowlands Loel Collins has been paddling white water around the world. ‘In thirty years you get to paddle lots, swim a bit and throw loads of lines at your mates, colleagues and clients’. He works as a senior instructor at Plas y Brenin, the National Mountain Centre, where he runs the canoeing and kayaking departments. He has worked with the BCU designing the safety training programmes for the Coach Education Scheme and worked closely with the emergency services designing bespoke water safety training for rescue teams. Most of all he loves boating. Loel acted as technical proof reader and contributed many ideas to the development of the book, Ray Goodwin has paddled throughout Britain and in North America and Nepal. He has a considerable reputation as a coach running his own business RayGoodwin.com. In 2005 he was featured on Ray Mears’ BBC2 Bushcraft series. Ray is a BCU Level 5 Coach. Ray wrote two canoe chapters for the BCU Canoe and Kayak Handbook and wrote the canoe specific sections for this book. Dave Luke has paddled throughout Britain, in the Alps, Corsica and in the United States. He represented Britain in the 0C1 at the rodeo (freestyle) championships in Germany. Dave wrote and advised on specialist white water open boat matters. Geraint Rowlands has worked as a commercial river guide on every continent apart from Antarctica. He is an instructor for Rescue 3 UK and a Level 5 Coach who works as Head of Rafting at Canolfan Tryweryn, the National White Water Centre. Geraint wrote the raft specific sections of the book. Introduction The writing of this book started when I tried to put some notes to­ gether as course notes for the safety and rescue courses I was running at Plas у Brenin. It soon became clear what a huge topic it is, and in sheer frustration I explained to a friend that I would have to write a book to cover it properly. His answer was, ‘Why don’t you?’ This is the result. I hope you find it enjoyable and informative. WHAT'S NEW IN THE 2nd EDITION? - Apart from the obvious im­ provement of full colour and new photos throughout, the following changes have been made: 1 The text has been completely 4 The rafting sections have revised and numerous small been completely rewritten but significant improvements by Geraint Rowlands. in the explanations in the 5 The chapter 'Planning a De­ text have been made. scent' has been extended to 2 The principles of safety and cover factors to be considered rescue have been unified and when travelling abroad. the mnemonic CLAP adopted. 6 One-handed signals as used by This is to make it easier to Paul O'Sullivan in his chapter remember them and fall in line in the BCU Canoe and Kayak with current practice in the Handbook have been adopted. teaching of white water safety. 3 The rescue section has been reorganized to fit in more closely with the TRTTG. 'low to high risk' model. ► LEARNING ABOUT SAFETY & RESCUE - The point of safety and rescue training is that there is rarely the time to develop a technique during a life-threatening emergency. Paddlers must already be in possession of a range of techniques that will allow them to solve the problem quickly. There isn’t the time to reinvent the wheel. New techniques are often developed in training and practice situations. There are three parts to becoming a safe and effective paddler and rescuer; knowledge, training and experience. KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING & EXPERIENCE This book can only provide the knowledge. It is important that the reader should consider attending practical safety and rescue courses in order to evaluate a range of techniques under controlled condi­ tions. This will also ensure that the techniques are fully and cor­ rectly understood. For those who already have a good deal of training and experience the book will be useful as an ‘aide-memoire’, and probably cover some areas that are new to the reader. ► PRACTICE - Like all skills, safety and rescue skills need to be prac­ ticed, initially to become competent and thereafter to maintain competence. Great care should be taken in selecting suitable sites, where the skills can be practised in controlled conditions. Nothing could be worse than to be, or see a friend, injured whilst practising how to stay safe! It is also important to try and practise as a team with the people you normally paddle with. ► STRUCTURE - This book is in four parts. The order they are in re­ flects the importance that I attach to them. WHITE water safety Part One deals with safety, which is about staying out of trouble in the first place. Part Two is about rescuing people. This is what we WHITE WATER RESCUE do when our safety has failed. Part Three is about caring for and evacuating peo­ CARE OF VICTIMS ple who are physically or emotionally injured. Part Four is primarily about recovering equipment. ACCESS & RECOVERY ► terminology - The following words are given specific meanings for the purposes of this book: Paddler means anyone who paddles on white water. Boater means kayakers and canoeists. Where there is a Standard American English word in ‘paddlespeak’ that is different from Standard English, it is indicated by italics and single quotation marks, i.e. weir, ‘low head dam’. ► gender - Despite being rich in words, English has a simple gram­ mar which can’t cope with the equal opportunities world we live in. Unless the context implies otherwise, ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ are used as neuter words, and could refer to a male or female person. DISCLAIMER: many of the safety & rescue techniques DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK ARE INTENDED FOR USE IN SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES, AND MAY BE HAZARDOUS IF APPLIED INAPPROPRIATELY BY UNSKILLED OR INSUFFICIENTLY TRAINED PADDLERS. THE ONUS IS ON THE READER TO APPLY THE TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED APPROPRIATELY AND CORRECTLY. THESETECHNIQUESAREBESTLEARNED AND PRACTISED UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR. Acknowledgements P-A WRHTI TOEN EW ATER SAFETY 1 Principles of Safety..................................7 Once again I’d like to thank all the people 2 Reading White Water...........................9 I acknowledged in the first edition. In 3 Hazards (including hypothermia) .22 this edition, in addition to the other 4 Planning a Descent...............................41 contributors Loel Collins, Ray Goodwin, 5 Skilful Paddling......................................49 Dave Luke and Geraint Rowlands, a 6 Mental Preparation & Warm Up.. 57 special thanks is due to Bob Timms who 7 Scouting Techniques.............................67 organised our alpine photo-shoot with consummate professionalism. A special 8 Assessing Risk............................................72 thanks is also due to my wife Joan for 9 Organisation...............................................77 being a great proof-reader and a sup­ 10 Communication......................................85 portive friend. 11 Leadership.....................................................98 A big thank you to all of the people who 12 Safety in Equipment Design ... 103 acted as our ‘models’: Bob Timms, Dino Heald, Tony Jones, Dave Luke, Loel Col­ PART TWO - WHITE WATER RESCUE lins, Pete Catterall, Rose Powell, Richard 13 Basic Rescue Equipment...............126 Manchett, Mark Chadwick, Chris Mur­ 14 Swimmers, Boats & Paddles .. .135 rain, Steve Macdonald and Dave Brown. 15 Stoppers.....................................................174 Thank you to all the people who sent us 16 Pins and Entrapments........ 187 so many of the photos that have made this edition so different. They are all 17 Protecting a Rapid........................ .203 credited in the captions. Any photos not 18 Incident Management......................206 credited were taken by Franco Ferrero or Peter Wood. - CARE OF VICTIMS 19 First Aid.....................................................212 20 Resuscitation............................................228 ► DEDICATION - To the memory of ‘Ack’ Hairon. Without his encouragement and 21 Moving Casualties................................236 practical support, neither I, nor his son 22 Post Traumatic Stress.......................245 Derek, would have been able to take up kayaking and get into so many scrapes -ACCESS & RECOVERY at such a young age. 23 Specialist Equipment..........................253 24 Rope Dynamics......................................259 25 Recoveries..................................................269 26 Other Access Techniques.................276 APPENDIX D - The photos and diagrams used in this book are A Glossary of Terms................................285 available free to use in presenta­ В Knots ft Hitches...................................287 tions on white water safety. They C Index............................................................293 are available on our website. D Resources ... www.pesdapress.com www.pesdapress.com CHAPTER 1 Principles of Safety White water safety and rescue can appear a complex subject. However, it can be distilled into a few basic principles. These should be constantly borne in mind throughout the rest of this book. The mnemonic CLAP may help you remember them. c A P Communication Line of Sight Avoidance Positioning COMMUNICATION Misunderstandings Signals, instructions and briefings must be simple, clear and con­ must be avoided cise. Do not make assumptions. If necessary, question to check at all costs. understanding. When using signals: • Point at where to go, rather than at the hazard. • Confirm understanding by repeating the same signal. LINE OF SIGHT Never run There are two facets to this: anything blind. ► Paddlers can only choose a ► All members of the group line and assess the level of should remain in the line of risk if they are in a position sight of at least one other to see what is coming. member of the group. AVOIDANCE IS BETTERTHAN CURE This covers a number of important guidelines: • Mutual Support - Paddlers should pad­ dle as a mutually supportive team. • Preparation and planning prevent poor performance. • Clean Profile - No knots or handles on your throw line, no loose or unnecessary straps on your buoyancy aid ('PFD'), nothing that will increase the risk of snagging/entrapment. • Assess the Risks - and make your own decisions accordingly. • Talk, Reach, Throw. Tow, Go (TRTTG) - Go for the low risk options first. • Plan В - Ask yourself "What if?" and work out a back-up plan. • KISS - Keep it short and simple. • Nothing a rescuer does should make the victim worse off. POSITION OF MAXIMUM USEFULNESS Being in the right • When protecting a rapid, paddlers should position place at the right themselves so as to cover the highest risk. This usu­ time is the key. ally means covering the problems that are most likely to occur, rather than the most dangerous hazard. • Look to your own safety - If you get into trou­ ble you can't help anyone else. river left river right FAST FLOW SLOW SLOW downstream CHAPTER 2 upstream Reading White Water Knowledge is power. Only by understanding how moving Figure 2-1 [above] water behaves can we use it, and by so doing avoid unneces­ Directions and flow sary or unacceptable levels of danger. on straight section of river. Directions When giving directions or describing a feature on a river it is impor­ tant to use the same language so as to avoid misunderstandings. The terms we use for giving directions on the river. Upstream is where the water is flowing from and downstream is where it is flowing to. River right and left are simply right and left when facing downstream. Straight Section of River As a general rule, when a river is running in a straight line the cur­ rent is strongest in the middle and weakest near the banks. ► MAIN FLOW - Away from the friction caused by contact with the banks, the current flows at its fastest. The layer nearest the river bed is the slowest and the layer just beneath the surface is the fastest. This is because the surface layer is slowed down a little by the fric­ tion caused by contact with the air.