Packraft Swiftwater Rescue Training

Skills, Gear, Etc

Four Corners Guides courses are exclusively for packrafters. Paddlers need to be able to competently maneuver their packrafts in Class II rapids, be in good health and overall fitness, possess solid swimming ability, and be comfortable swimming in moving current during river drills. Participants need full drysuits, they should dress appropriately for weather and temperature and expect to be in the water for extended periods of time.

Minimum Personal Equipment for Class

PFD (aka life jacket) designed for whitewater use, whitewater helmet, protective clothing suitable for extended swimming in cold water, protective footwear, boat, paddle, whistle, throw rope, 15+ feet of one inch tubular nylon webbing, and 2 locking carabiners.

Course Duration

• ✅Three 8-hour days
• ✅Course Location: Animas River, various places
• ✅Moving water on rivers rated up to and including class II+.

Detailed Content Summary

• ✅Welcome, introductions, paperwork
• ✅Student and Instructor course expectations and limitations
• ✅Course itinerary and site logistics
• ✅Review waiver, assumption of risk, challenge by choice, medical disclosure
• ✅About the ACA
• ✅Life jacket policy (always wear on water)
• ✅Appropriate personal behavior
  • 🟢No alcohol / substance abuse
  • 🟢Proper etiquette on and off the water
  • 🟢Respect private property
  • 🟢Practice Leave No Trace ethics

Personal Preparation

• ✅Personal ability
• ✅Swimming ability
• ✅Water comfort & confidence
• ✅Fitness, conditioning, and warm up
• ✅Safe paddle and boat handling
• ✅Safety and rescue considerations
• ✅Personal equipment (reviewed by instructor)

The Paddling Environment

• ✅Weather conditions and forecasts
• ✅International scale of river difficulty
• ✅Characteristics of current
• ✅River levels and streamflow (CFS)
• ✅Subjective vs. objective hazards
• ✅Effective river/rapid scouting strategies
• ✅River features and hazards
  • 🟢Downstream and Upstream Vs/chutes
  • 🟢Eddies and Eddy Lines
  • 🟢Waves/Wave Holes

• ✅Holes/Hydraulics
• ✅Ledges / Horizon lines
• ✅Strainers: types, typical locations
• ✅Rocks/Pillows
• ✅Cold water immersion/response
• ✅Dams / Flow Diversion Structures / Pipelines
• ✅Undercut Rocks / Ice
• ✅Flush drowning

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• ✅Helmet
• ✅Life jacket
• ✅Footwear
• ✅Packraft and paddle
• ✅Thermal Protection
• ✅Accessories: knife, whistle, food, etc.
• ✅Packraft specific PPE 

Personal Rescue Equipment (PRE)

• ✅Tubular webbinga
• ✅Locking carabiners
• ✅Throw rope
• ✅Pulleys
• ✅Prusik loops
• ✅Survival Equipment
• ✅Quick Release Harness System (QRHS)
  • 🟢Parts, applications, advantages, disadvantages, and hazards
  • 🟢Common causes of QRHS failure and prevention strategies
  • 🟢Threading options for tri-glide
  • 🟢Buddy checks for QRHS
• ✅Rescue tethers: parts, applications, advantages, disadvantages, and hazards
  • 🟢Strategies to prevent entrapment: proper stow points & acceptable attachment options for carabiners

Rescue Strategy

• ✅Personal Preparation: swimming ability, confidence, fitness and conditioning
• ✅Strategies to prevent or minimize incidents
• ✅Trip organization and planning principles: float plans, emergency action plans
• ✅Communication: hand/paddle and whistle signals
• ✅C.L.A.P. – Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance, Position of maximum usefulness
• ✅Incident timeline
• ✅Rescue priorities
• ✅Responsibilities of swimmer
• ✅Phases of rescue:
  • 🟢S.T.O.P – Stop, Think, Observe, Plan
  • 🟢L.A.S.T – Location, Assess/Access, Stabilize, Transport
• ✅Rescue management: leadership, safety, rescuers, subject (stable and unstable)
• ✅Establishing acceptable level of risk: Can I [do this]? Should I [do this]?
• ✅Liability Issues: duty to act, breach of duty, harm, standard of care, abandonment
• ✅Ethical issues: moral vs. legal obligations
• ✅Medical issues and considerations
• ✅Rescue strategies for common river scenarios:
  • 🟢Swimmer with/without equipment in current
  • 🟢Paddlers & Equipment on rocks in current
  • 🟢Boat pins with/without paddler
  • 🟢Entrapment
  • 🟢Unaccounted for paddler

Rescue Strategy

• ✅Strategies to prevent or minimize incidents
  • 🟢C.L.A.P. = Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance, Position of Maximum Usefulness
• ✅Incident Timeline 
• ✅Phases of rescue
  • 🟢S.T.O.P. = Stop, Think, Observe, Plan
  • 🟢L.A.S.T. = Location, Assess/Access, Stabilize, Transport
• ✅Rescue Management: leadership, safety, rescuers, swimmers (stable & unstable)
  • 🟢Establishing acceptable level of risk: “Can I [do this]? Should I [do this]?”
  • 🟢Liability Issues: duty to act, breach of duty, harm, standard of care, abandonment
  • 🟢Ethical Issues: moral vs. legal obligations
  • 🟢Medical Issues & considerations
• ✅Rescue strategies for common river scenarios
  • 🟢Swimmer with and without equipment in current
  • 🟢Paddlers & equipment on mid-stream rocks
  • 🟢Boat pins with and without a paddler
  • 🟢Entrapment
  • 🟢Unaccounted for paddler

Wading Skills

• ✅Causes and prevention of foot entrapment
• ✅Formal vs. informal wading techniques
• ✅Factors that impact success in wading: depth, force, composition of river bottom, number of waders, etc.
• ✅Strengths, limitations, advantages, disadvantages, and risks of wading techniques
• ✅Four-point crawl
• ✅Single person assisted wade
• ✅Two-person wade
• ✅Line astern wade
• ✅Wedge wade
• ✅Line abreast wade
• ✅Fence wade
• ✅Tethered wading techniques
• ✅Direct line crossing
• ✅Wading applications for foot/boat entrapments

Swimming Skills

• ✅Strategies to minimize risk of foot entrapment
• ✅Techniques for successful exits from current to eddies
• ✅Defensive swimming position
• ✅Aggressive swimming position
• ✅Defensive to aggressive transitions
• ✅Ferry techniques: defensive and aggressive swimming
• ✅Self-rescue: swimming with equipment
• ✅Swimming techniques for: waves, hydraulics, and drops
• ✅Strategies to conserve energy: short aggressive sprints, “porpoising” for in-water scouting, appropriate timing, etc.
• ✅Managing holes and drops
• ✅Swiftwater entries: in and out of water starting positions
• ✅Techniques for successful downstream swim of a rapid
• ✅Strategies for handling strainers: aggressive swim in and over and log walk
• ✅Non-tethered Swimming Rescue (contact rescues)
• ✅Tethered rescue swimming
• ✅Direct line lower of rescuer

Throw Rope Skills

• ✅Characteristics of throw ropes: rope diameter, length, construction material, and bag design
• ✅Rope management and safety strategies
• ✅Rope care
• ✅Rope hazards
• ✅Throwing and recovery zones
• ✅Factors impacting throw accuracy and success: stationary and moving targets
• ✅Single person throw rope techniques: underhand, overhand, and sidearm
• ✅Two-person throw bag techniques: split bag toss
• ✅Bag re-stuffing techniques
• ✅Advantages and disadvantages: bag and coil throwing techniques
• ✅Rope coiling methods and throw techniques: butterfly and coil
• ✅Rope receiving techniques
• ✅Communication with swimmers
• ✅Techniques for handling multiple swimmers
• ✅Vectors pull to assist with landing swimmers
• ✅Belay techniques
  • 🟢Hip belay, seated belay, and back-up belay
  • 🟢Dynamic and friction belay
• ✅Pendulum use for crossing current
• ✅Line ferrying techniques
  • 🟢Boats
  • 🟢Tethered swimmers
  • 🟢Messenger lines

Rigging Skills

• ✅Knots: components of good knots, dressing, terminology, strengths, and limitations
• ✅Tie and properly dress
  • 🟢Figure 8 family: standard, on bight, follow-through
  • 🟢Overhand Family for webbing: overhand on a bight, overhand bend
  • 🟢Double Fisherman
  • 🟢Prusik Hitch
  • 🟢Munter Hitch
  • 🟢Clove Hitch
  • 🟢Butterfly Knot
• ✅Anchors
• ✅Components of solid anchor points
• ✅Terminology
  • 🟢Advantages and disadvantages of anchor types
  • 🟢Characteristics of self-equalizing and load distributing anchors
  • 🟢Planning for anchor failure
  • 🟢One-point anchors: friction wrap, 3 bight, single loop, and wrap 3 – pull 2
  • 🟢Two-point anchors
• ✅Mechanical advantage
  • 🟢Applications of mechanical advantage in the rescue environment
  • 🟢Risk management strategies: scene management and dampeners
  • 🟢Characteristics of simple and compound systems
  • 🟢Simple systems: 2:1 & 3:1

Packraft Based Rescues

• ✅Advantages and disadvantages during rescues of various crafts: canoe, kayak, SUP, raft, etc.
• ✅Paddle recovery options
• ✅Strategies for boat recovery
• ✅Self-rescue: swimming with equipment
• ✅Swimmer tow options
• ✅Swimmer re-entry/re-mount techniques
• ✅Packraft bumping/bulldozing
• ✅Packraft towing (without use of Quick Release Rescue Harness (QRHS) and tether)
• ✅Tethered craft rescue
• ✅Controlled boat lower
• ✅Packraft specific rescues including pins
• ✅Pin mechanics
  • 🟢Types of packraft pins
  • 🟢Boat-based techniques for pins
  • 🟢Control and haul lines
  • 🟢Strong arm method
  • 🟢Vector pull and progressive vector pull
  • 🟢1:1 with change in direction
  • 🟢Packraft specific anchors (i.e., creating anchors on specific craft)
  • 🟢Packraft-specific techniques: hull wrap for rotation, raft specific techniques, etc.

Strategies and Skills for Entrapments

• ✅Stabilization and control lines
  • 🟢Cinches
  • 🟢Characteristics of open, closed, and irreversible cinches
  • 🟢One-bank cinches (kiwi & U-cinch)
  • 🟢Two-bank cinches (simple cinch, Y-cinch, shrinking loop/lasso, and box cinch)
• ✅Application of cinches for paddler, swimmer, equipment, and/or boat entrapments

Scenarios

Simulated rescue skill development sessions and scenarios will be used throughout the course to:

• ✅Model and utilize effective risk management and rescue strategies
• ✅Highlight essential skills for the course level and venue
• ✅Increase skill and experience level of students
• ✅Maximize learning outcomes for all students

Conclusion and Wrap Up

• ✅Group debrief / individual feedback
• ✅Course limitations
• ✅Importance of First Aid and CPR
• ✅Importance of additional instruction, practice, and gaining experience
• ✅Importance of appropriate level of safety and rescue training
• ✅Life sport / paddling options
• ✅Local paddling groups / clubs
• ✅Handouts / reference materials
• ✅Participation cards
• ✅ACA membership benefits and join process