Whitewater Safety & Rescue Course (9th/10th May

A group of 7 paddlers/swimmers met up with Ian in the Tryweryn cafe at 9am on Saturday morning, had a chat about the course and paid the £12 per person fee now charged by the Tryweryn.
The 7 of us (Me, John, Oliver, Rob, Nigel, Laurence & Sue ) quickly got changed and headed to the top site above the “chipper”. No need to pay for parking as that comes with the £12 Tryweryn fee. As Ian had stated in his course notes this is a very wet course and it would be advisable to wear a dry suit if you have one, a lot of time is spent in the water swimming ! We started by getting in just above the surf wave and drifting down before swimming aggressively for the river bank, the emphasis being on “self rescue”. We then swam across to an eddy the other side before swimming back again. The water is still cold but you are now beginning to get used to it and warm up as your heart is now pumping hard !
Back in the water again but this time to be reached by a friend & colleague. We worked through the principles of (S)SRTRG Self, Shout, Reach, Throw,Row, Go with the increasing risk to the rescuer(s).
Some throwline practice on the bank before back in the water for some throwline rescues, with every one having to rescue and be rescued. Ps if your casualty is unconscious and face down in the water don’t forget to turn him the right way up first, John !
We moved down to some faster flowing water and were shown by Ian how to defend yourself when being washed down to a strainer ie the “chipper”. We then did more throwline work with someone throwing or dropping a line to a swimmer but the rescuer being up on the bank with the line. More swimming across the river followed before moving up to the weir and surfing across it ( don’t worry too much, Ian demonstrates everything first to prove not only it can be done but can be fun !! ) If like Laurence you don’t quite make it all the way across first time you can go back up and do it again. Let’s face it by now we we’d spent so much time in the water we’d lost all sense and feeling !. We finished off with the use of our Rescue harnesses on our Buoyancy aids.
Oh I forgot to say, we did stop for lunch and the sausage roll and chips were well appreciated. A hot shower helped ease the aches and pains and brought a great day to an end. Hey only one more day to do !
Day 2 was at Mile End Mill Llangollen as the Tryweryn wasn’t releasing on Sunday. The first day we didn’t need our boats so the second day was more to do with boat rescue, rescuing a swimmer on your boat and retrieving paddles etc using the STVE priority guideline, Self, Team, Victim, Equipment. Still lots of swimming though in case you thought you were going to stay dry ! We were also shown methods for retrieving a pinned boat using either pulleys or Karibiners and how to do a shallow water rescue by walking across the river to assist a casualty and then bring him back safely. We then finished off with foot entrapments and how to help a casualty in this situation in the two scenarios head up and head down situations. That was it, we retired to the Whitewaters hotel just up from Mile End Mill for a well earned cup of tea.
Overall this is a great course that Ian has obviously prepared well with everything just flowing smoothly into the next topic. Well worth doing. Good luck To :- Paul, Simon, Geoff, Kee, Steve & Kev and don’t forget lots of layers and thermals, you really can’t have too many !