"Time for a wet exit, people..."

Saturday, September 17, 2011

“Okay…to perform the ‘wet exit’ correctly, after you’ve rolled…bang three times on the bottom of your kayak to alert fellow kayakers that you’re in need of help,” Dave Herpy instructed as we prepared to get wet. The water was in the high sixties which is pretty cool, but we did have wet suits on. I was listening to what he was saying and that the three bangs would alert a fellow kayaker to approach with their craft and if you could grab the tip of their boat, might right yourself without coming out of the kayak. I was also thinking that the chances of that happening were about as good as the Indians winning the World Series and that I should just get the hell out of the thing as soon as it rolled over. “Won’t the fact that they can see the bottom of my kayak floating in the river be sign enough that I’m in distress?” I asked. I loved creating teachable moments for him…and he loved having me in his classes. Kept him on his toes. It really was no big deal and if nothing else, forced you to calm yourself, get your bearings…which is a little tricky when you’re upside down and attached to your craft with a spray skirt…and think about what you needed to do to turn this into something positive. When it was my turn to roll, I took a deep breath, rolled over and began releasing oxygen through my nose as I banged, removed the spray skirt and pushed myself out of the kayak and to the surface. “You okay?” my training partner asked as I broke the surface. “Everything’s good…but he lied. The water’s damned cold,” I said.

It was around 2 p.m. and we’d been training since eight that morning. All ten candidates had taught about some aspect of kayaking to the rest of the group so our teaching styles and grasp of the content could be evaluated, critiqued and improved upon for the final practical exam the next day. We were on the water now to demonstrate a stroke we had to teach to the group and then to perform two-person rescues. My partner Carolyn and I would be demonstrating the ‘heel hook’ rescue…something I’d never heard of and since I’d never been in the water with my kayak before, never done. I paddled over to her and brought up the subject. “So Carolyn…all ready to demonstrate our rescue?” She had gotten a mouthful when practicing her wet exit and I didn’t think she was particularly looking forward to going into the water again any time soon. “Oh yeah…it’s really kind of easy. I’ve done it in the pool and googled it. I know all about it,” she said with confidence. ‘Hmm’ I thought as the wheels began turning. “Hey…how about I do the roll and you rescue me?” I suggested this knowing that she’d have to do all the talking and I’d just do the acting. It would look like I’d known everything all the time and I kind of liked going over and really wanted to find out how tough it was to re-enter a kayak in water over my head. “Works for me,” she said.

Once she described what we would be doing to me, it actually sounded quite easy. Execution would be next. I rolled my kayak, came out cleanly and surfaced next to it, tapping the top of my head with my hand to indicate that I was okay. She paddled over next to me and the kayak and instructed me to grab hold of the bow (front) of her kayak as she began the process of flipping mine over and emptying the water from it. This process is actually quite easy. The rescuer grabs the bow or stern tip of the kayak and pulls it up from the water to break the suction created when it turned over. They then drag the tip up and over their deck in front of them and lift and rock the kayak to get the water from the hold. This is done in seconds and the empty kayak is then flipped upright and pulled along side their kayak, facing in the opposite direction. The rescuing kayaker then leans over the empty cockpit and hold firmly to the far side of the kayak…stabilizing it so the kayaker in the water can re-enter by sliding down the side of their kayak to a point just behind the cockpit. Next, they reach across their kayak to grab the ropes on their rescuers kayak and using these for leverage, pull themselves from the water to the deck of their kayak. From this position, they simply swing their feet from the water and into the cockpit, turn over and…back in and up. It all took about 90 seconds to perform…not bad for two rookies who had never performed the maneuver.

Carolyn rolled next and once again managed a mouthful of water. I watched her closely as I performed the tasks necessary to get her boat ready to re-enter to be sure that she was okay. She did well getting back in and I got the chance to see how easily I could manage to balance both boats while she did. As long as I had a firm hold on her boat and pulled it snugly against mine, there was no way either craft could roll over during re-entry. The simplicity of the process gave confidence I had never before experienced for being on the open water in my kayak. Though we would not be practicing self-rescue, I now knew how to do it and believed that I could perform it. I’d have to try sometime soon.

The training was tremendous and I learned more about kayaking in one day than I had in the previous 13 years of paddling. The instruction course we were training to present to beginning paddlers was an outstanding way for anyone to begin the sport. I could see its value in teaching them safety and skills that would give them the confidence essential to getting the maximum enjoyment from the sport. We had been on the water practicing strokes, paddling around to different training sites and performing rescues for almost 4 hours. I’d gotten a little too much sun and was quite tired from all the activity and stress. As I left the parking lot for home though, I knew I had a lot of work to perform that evening to prepare for tomorrow’s practical tests for certification. I also felt the beginnings of congested sinuses which I assumed was a result of my time in the water.

Kayaking: Four hours on the water.
Training Heart Rate: 75-125 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1,000.