The Eskimo Rescue involves maneuvering your kayak to a trapped paddler so they can right themselves without exiting their boat by rolling up off of your boat or paddle. A missed roll, a lost paddle, or even an entrapment might require you to act quickly to help a fellow paddler on the sea. Once the paddler is over, they signal for a rescue by banging the upturned hull with their hands in beats of “3″ to attract attention. While underwater in their boats, the capsized paddler needs to be completely tucked forward so that their hands can be up in the air – targets for the would be rescuers that are paddling in to provide assistance. Obviously, you have to be paddling together, preferably talking distance.
While the paddler is upside down, staying completely tucked forward enhances the arms’ reach into the air to search for the rescuer’s boat, calm and patience definitely a plus for the victim. In truth, most rescuers have only 5-7 seconds to get to an Eskimo Rescue victim in cold water, unless there is lots of trust in the rescuer’s perfect boat control. It’s important for the upside down paddler to move their hands along the kayak in a wide arc up in the air while keeping their hands perpendicular to the hull – this can protect the hands in the event of an out of control rescuer.
Rolling up off the bow of the rescuer’s boat is the “classic” Eskimo Rescue, but other options include presenting the stern (if the capsize victim is behind you) or gliding alongside and placing the victim’s hand on your paddle shaft, aka “paddle presentation”. In this way they can roll up between the boats off of the paddle shaft that is lodged across the two kayaks.
As the rescuer, you can slow yourself down and maneuver with a light reverse-sweep/low-brace turn, but ultimately grabbing the victim’s wrist to place it on your paddle shaft seems to be what stops your boat right next to the victim’s kayak. The secure feel of the shaft on the boats provides an easy recovery for the victim by rolling up between the boats.
Everybody smiling at the end of a session, all practiced in a 4 knot tide race, to bring the session to it’s apt conclusion. Now we just have to paddle back across the bay, a 3 mile crossing, to get back to the put in.
Other than the really big, 20+ foot high tides, it’s a screamingly calm afternoon, and the paddle back is a bit surreal – for late September at latitude 60ºN Latitude in coastal Alaska.
The team assembled at the take out. Paul, Nigel, Ryan, Mark, & Tom.
For 2010 Sea Kayak training opportunities, contact us, alaskakayakschool@gmail.com, (907) 235-2090, or view our calendar of events current through October 2010 on this blog or on our website’s calendar, www.alaskakayakschool.com/calendar.
