How to use a Kayak River Rescue Life Jacket

Video Transcript

"The rescue jacket is a very useful tool and it can be a wonderful piece of equipment. However, within those uses some are extremely good and some, while being very useful, can be extremely dangerous. Whenever you're in a rescue situation you want to try and keep yourself removed from the river without putting yourself too much in danger. And the rescue jacket is one of those pieces of equipment that when used in certain situations is going to put you right in the front line. The first and best use of a rescue jacket is to using your flip line. Clip yourself into a tree or a boulder or something solid so that you can use it as a belay point off the shore and that way not matter how much tension's on that rope you're going to be able to lean against the boulder or the tree using the flip line and it's not going to go anywhere. Another use of the rescue jacket is what we call live bait rescue, otherwise known as dope on a rope. And in this case you're gonna have a rope clipped in to the back here and you're going to be diving out attached to the end of that rope with someone on shore holding the end. When you're going to swim out to something, be it an unconscious person, a boat or anything like that and grab them or get a line out to them. That's a particularly aggressive rescue tecnique and something that you want to do only if you really trust the people on shore that are belaying you. Another use is a V-lower and this is a more controlable way of putting yourself on the end of two lines where you're then at the point here and you can be moved back and forth and up and down the river on the end of that V. All of these we will be showing you later. Another brilliant method of using this jacket, if you're actually in your kayak or in your craft, is using a tow line. And, this you're going to be taking it out of a pocket and clipping it on to something while you're actually in there so you can then paddle freely using both hands. One rule to remember though when you're ever clipping into your rescue jacket is that you always use a locking carabiner, not only is it locking but when you clip it on it's locked and you check it's locked and that way if it swings off to the side it's not gonna get unclipped and clip in to something that won't release on the side of your jacket."