We have recently had an FSRT (Foundation Safety & Rescue Training) course which is a basic course that aims to give you some understanding and knowledge of simple rescue techniques. It was run over two evening sessions at High Rid Reservoir. Six of us were on the course run by one of our club members, John.
The course consists of safety techniques for use on sheltered water and is a pre-requisite for those wanting to go on to become coaches. Although the course itself does not require expert paddlers, it is for all paddlers with, at minimun, some paddling experience. The 6 of us had a vast range of experience between us, going from those with a bit of flat water experience and one or two river trips under their belt through to those with a fair amount of river experience and having done similar courses in the past.
The first session covered throw line work on the bank and on the water rescue techniques in kayaks. These included ‘T’ rescues, ‘X’ rescues and ‘H’ rescues; as well as being able to recover an unconscious inverted paddler in their kayak. Although the first session was on a fairly cool June evening, all the really wet work was left to the end to keep us as warm as possible all evening.
The second session was on a sunny June evening and gave us the opportunity to practise our throw line work with people in the water and then bringing them ashore. We had a refresher of some of the kayaking rescue techniques and we also used open canoes and learned the appropriate techniques for rescuing capsized open boats. This session seemed to have a lot more wet work involved, which was fine as it was a sunny summer evening, and I think we all enjoyed getting wet that day!
All in all, everyone had fun and we learned something new about rescuing our peers on the water. A fun, enjoyable course of benefit to everyone on it.
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