General > Competitions and Training

Rescue development - KAYAKING EXPLOSION!

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Maryanne:
23/02/2013

Niall F and Cillian log hours, run instruction through the day and design rescue with Ross.
Not enough second years present to run full rescue, but a very good opportunity for figuring out what to do.

Any feedback guys?
Did you know more or less about how to set up rescue than you'd thought?
What did it feel like deciding how to run things and where to put rescue? 8)

Chunderdragon:
Felt good! definitely need to work on positioning rescue myself, but learnt loads yesterday!

Ross:
Who is supposed to be in charge of the rescue? The instructor, or someone from the rescue? Or some sort of compromise and discussion about it?

Maryanne:

--- Quote from: Ross on February 24, 2013, 19:37:11 ---Who is supposed to be in charge of the rescue? The instructor, or someone from the rescue? Or some sort of compromise and discussion about it?

--- End quote ---

The instructor is ultimately responsible for safety on the trip, however since we often ask them to run L2 and L3 training, or manage quite a large group, they don't always get to give each rescue paddler instructions on where to be or what to do.
Since instructors are often only with us for a trip or two, they're unlikely to think of long term goals (eg developing rescue) when they're faced with short term targets (eg get the beginners through the day).

It's definitely worth asking them for tips on positioning etc, so it's worth taking the initiative to do that. A good option would be to come up with what you think you should do, then ask the instructor to critique it. The process of thinking it through is very valuable, since it's transferable to evaluating any feature (eg on private trips) and then getting some feedback will help improve the ideas.

You guys could decide to have a quick talk with the instructor before getting on the water, then a short talk at the end (like we did last week) to get a debrief.

kmck:
Ultimately on a club trip it's the instructor whose insurance the trip runs on, so they are in charge.

However, there is a need for you guys to get used to making these calls on river trips under supervision so when you are peer paddling you can make them by yourself. I will happily run a river with a group of my friends knowing I can get myself out of any situation I find myself in, and if I can't say that, I won't get on the water or run a particular rapid. If you are always lead down a river that becomes habit and it's hard to break free of thinking of yourself as just a follower rather than the leaders you've the potential to be.
There are few things you learn by doing and where to set up rescue is one, like why do we have a live bait at the end of the diagnol on the boyne? Is it a good idea or is better to let someone swim since rescue is easy at that point? How long does it take to set up rescue and does that make the trip longer but safer or just longer?

The basic idea is known as Plan, Act, Review. If you don't have a plan that everyone knows there isn't good rescue. if you can't act on the plan it wasn't very good and if you never review you never learn from your mistakes or success. This is why group debriefs are a good idea and if we get into the practice of them when things go well, if things go wrong we have the expereince of doing them.

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