Subject: RE: baidarka HANG ON!! I'm coming!....eventually.
From: Chuck Holst (CHUCK@MULTITECH.COM)
Date: Wed Nov 22 2000 - 11:39:59 EST
At a symposium a few years ago, Derek Hutchinson told my wife and me that he
invented the technique of waving the hands on both sides of the kayak (he
also claimed to have invented the reentry and roll). However, I think there
is a reference to waving the hands after a capsize in F. Spencer Chapman's
1931 _Northern Lights_, about the First British Arctic Air Route Expedition
in Greenland, which suggests to me that it is an old Greenland technique.
Certainly, I wouldn't bother with it if my roll failed and there was no one
close, but it can be very useful in a training situation. My wife used it a
lot when she was learning to roll. Every time she missed and needed help,
she would wave her hands, and I would go in for a bow rescue. Not once in
her first few months of rolling did she have to make a wet exit, which had
the benefit of less fatigue and more time for practice. In a beginner's
class, however, I think the main value of the exercise is teaching the
student to be methodical and not to panic when capsized.
Chuck Holst
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Kohut [mailto:chriskayak@earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2000 3:00 AM
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
Subject: re:baidarka HANG ON!! I'm coming!....eventually.
<<<The victim capsizes,
taps the hull three times and then moves their hands back and forth for
the
amount of time they can hold their breath.>>>
...the wisdom of which
exercise has always escaped me... I remember seeing an illustration in a
small book about creek boating that depicted an overturned kayak on the
BOTTOM of the river......the mishap must have occurred some time ago by
the illustration........the long gone kayaker's skeletal hands were
still moving back and forth on the hull of the boat, gesturing for
rescue.
I get a bit jumpy just thinking that
my deliverance is coming from some other quarter than myself.
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