How to Conduct a Self Rescue While Whitewater Kayaking

Video Transcript

"So you've practiced what exits on the flat water with friends, and now you feel pretty confident getting out of your boat and doing your wet exit. So what happens if you do a wet exit while you're in moving current? Well everything's the same. You stay calm, you tuck forward, you get ready to pull that grab loop, and then you push the kayak away from you. Now, you have to sort of get your gear and yourself to shore. Remember, you're number one, so if the gear, which is the paddle and boat, is taking you somewhere where you don't want to be, let them go. We can replace the gear; we can't replace you. If you can get your gear to shore, it makes your day much easier. What you do can do if the boat's upside down, take the boat and paddle in one hand and then use a sculling action to swim yourself to shore. Make sure you keep your feet up. If you keep your feet and point to downstream, you're less likely to get a foot entrapment. A foot entrapment can end your day pretty quickly. A foot entrapment happens when you stand up in the river, like I'm standing up now but I'd be in moving current and my foot...there's a rock right here...get stuck underneath the rock. Then the force of the current pushes me over like so. It's very hard to get up like this and it takes a long time to extract somebody if you see this happen. If your foot's under the water and like this, you can get foot entrapment with water up to your knees. So you want to make sure you never stand up, you see your toes on the surface of the water, and you swim aggressively to shore. There may be times when you want to flip on your belly and swim aggressively to shore as well. So make sure you get proper river rescue training, have some people give you some instructions so you know how to self-rescue."