Water is now flowing at optimal levels and the Geng Sam Chan playwave nr The Wild Lodge is giving some great sessions.

Images are myself, Matt Taylor and the hand paddle guru Brad on Saturday.

 

 

 

Robin

Below is an abridged set of guidlines published by the guys at www.americanwhitewater.org.
If you are paddling on moving water but read though this and say uhhhh? then maybe for your own safety and the safety of others you should consider a training workshop.

Guidelines for River Rescue

Recover from an upset with an eskimo roll whenever possible. Evacuate your boat immediately if there is imminent danger of being trapped against rocks, brush, or any other kind of strainer.

If you swim, hold on to your boat. It has much flotation and is easy for rescuers to spot. Get to the upstream end so that you cannot be crushed between a rock and your boat by the force of the current. Persons with good balance may be able to climb on top of a swamped kayak or flipped raft and paddle to shore.

Release your craft if this will improve your chances, especially if the water is cold or dangerous rapids lie ahead. Actively attempt self-rescue whenever possible by swimming for safety. Be prepared to assist others who may come to your aid.

When swimming in shallow or obstructed rapids, lie on your back with feet held high and pointed downstream. Do not attempt to stand in fast moving water; if your foot wedges on the bottom, fast water will push you under and keep you there. get to slow or very shallow water before attempting to stand or walk. Look ahead! Avoid possible pinning situations including undercut rocks, strainers, downed trees, holes, and other dangers by swimming away from them.

If the rapids are deep and powerful, roll over onto your stomach and swim aggressively for shore. watch for eddies and slackwater and use them to get out of the current. Strong swimmers can effect a powerful upstream ferry and get to shore fast. If the shores are obstructed with strainers or under cut rocks, however, it is safer to “ride the rapid out” until a safer escape can be found.

If others spill and swim, go after the boaters first. Rescue boats and equipment only if this can be done safely. While participants are encouraged (but not obligated) to assist one another to the best of their ability, they should do so only if they can, in their judgment, do so safely. The first duty of a rescuer is not to compound the problem by becoming another victim.

The use of rescue lines requires training; uninformed use may cause injury. Never tie yourself into either end of a line without a reliable quick-release system. Have a knife handy to deal with unexpected entanglement. Learn to place set lines effectively, to throw accurately, to belay effectively, and to properly handle a rope thrown to you.

 

We have just returned from the 3 day GCSE kayak program in Nakon Nayok.

We used the canoe slalom course and Geng Sam Chang rapids below Tha Dan Dam as our training site and the river was running at med to low rainy season levels. However this was perfect for the skills that we needed to work on with the students.

Simon Shand and Matt Taylor have been working with the students, mainly in the pool, and for some this was their first time on moving water !

We made the descion to put all of the students in Whitewater playboats and this was definitely the right choice.

The students achieved far more than we expected and by the end of the course we even had some students thowing moves in the hole.

All the video is now in the can for their GCSE assessments in the Uk and teachers and students have returned to Bangkok for the last two days of term before the start of summer holidays.

 

Thanks to all for a fun few days..

For the last few weeks we have seen some tremendous rain storms up at the lodge, and consequently the planting is thriving and the rivers are up.

If the rivers are up then Geng Sam Chan play wave is going off! So its time to put the play boats in the truck and start attempting those front loop / face plant combinations.

 

This was exactly the intention last Saturday when Matt and I got on the water.

The pile was looking good on the main hole and the run off from the storms in the park was feeding the wave without any assistance from the dam above.

but In the end it was a 50/50 day……….

………50% good as Matt nailed his first 4 repetitive ends of a front cartwheel.

……….50% bad as it was at the cost of the first equipment breakage of the season when he surfaced from a roll minus the left hand blade on his borrowed paddle !

the wave is now in and will be with us for the foreseeable future, in the monsoon season it will be fed via run off and once the rains have finished the irrigation releases from Klong Ta Dan Dam will keep the hole going.

 

Next week sees Matt and Shandy bringing a class of GCSE kayaking students up to the wave for the culmination of their two year kayaking elective and the video taping of skills for the examiners in the UK.

Forecast looks to have high water so playboating will definitely be on the agenda.