Sure I'll get the ball rolling so!
One scenario that I thought was pretty unusual and didn't feel in my comfort zone dealing with was when Eoghan got pinned.
Mark was above him on the water in a boat
Simon waded out to him
Steve Fahy threw him a rope once he was out of the boat
Dave O'R passed a rope with a crab to Mark, who paddled it out to Simon
Simon clipped the boat in, moved it so it came out of the pin
Dave, Steve and I pulled the boat in
Eoghan got it
Simon came back to the bank
all was well.
So, Simon/Mark/anyone else with experience of this sort of situation, what could you do if the water was a bit higher so that you couldn't wade out?
Would it have been possible to clip a rope on to the wader and have them approach the pin from the bank a little further upstream?
Would more boat based rescue have been helpful?
I'd imagine that, depending on the circumstances, helping from a boat would be tricky, since as you focus on trying to move the boat you could become easier to wash downstream.
I haven't come across that many pinnings myself, so I'm not sure.
I think I've heard at a rescue course that the first thing to do is get a person to the boat to give it a nudge and then if that fails to free it progress to clipping it in, or escalating to using a z drag or similar method to use more strength to pull the boat.
But if there's a person still in the boat I imagine you need to get a person close asap to help the paddler get out, or keep their head above water.
I figure if I think through some of that then the next time I see a pinning I'd be able to react faster and more usefully.