Safety Gear for Whitewater Canoeing

Video Transcript

"Anytime you’re paddling, whether its in a group, a smaller group or a larger group, you want to make sure you have your own personal safety gear along as well. It’s important for each individual in the group to carry their own personal safety gear because that’s the way they support each other. Again, as we said before in the gear section, this gear isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good, but you’re gear is going to help someone else and likewise, their gear is going to hopefully help you, if you get in trouble. Probably the most basic element of safety gear is a throw rope. A throw rope is fifty to seventy feet of polypropylene or Spectra rope inside a nylon bag or mesh cover that allows it to drain easily. Another thing to carry along with a throw rope, every time you have a throw rope is a knife, this is a folding knife, this knife can be opened with one hand, it locks when it opened, its got a nice sharp blade and that sharp blade can cut this rope very quickly. Of course the converse to that, is that sharp blade can also cut somebody if it’s opened inadvertently, that’s way you only use a locking knife on the river. Some people use sheath knives that don’t open, but just fit inside a sheath, those work as well, but the problem with those knives is that they sometimes drop out of the sheath and then you can lose them in the river and that not only creates a hazard in the river, but it also costs you fifty or hundred dollars. So I like to put this knife inside my pocket of my PFP and that way I can get to it quickly if I need to, but its not going to fall out inadvertently. Another thing you often bring with you is several prussic loops, these prussic loops are six feet of six millimeter nylon cord that you can use for a prussic knot in an mechanical advantage system such as a Z drag. You can also use them just to extend your reach on the river. And finally carabineers come in really handy on the river, if you’re going to use carabineers on the river, use only locking carabineers, non-locking carabineers on the river have the tendency to clip into things they shouldn’t. Some paddlers carry their carabineers clipped into their life jacket shoulders, if you’re going to do that you definitely want to lock those locks on the carabineers. More than one boater has been hooked inadvertently to a canoe, or to a raft or to a boat, by not locking their carabineer on their life jacket and having that clip in by accident. So, again, be responsible for the group you’re paddling with, carry your own personal safety gear; a throw rope, a knife, a few carabineers, some prussic loops and finally a whistle, this one’s built right into the life jacket and the whistle allows you to signal, so if you have something happening in your area and you want to get attention, one blow alerts people that something’s happening, three blows is an universal signal for emergency so only use that one when you really have an emergency. Carry that safety gear, you’ll support each other on the river and have a great day. "