Canoe Rescue Saws and Air Bags
While paddling with a very good friend and exceptional paddler we pinned an open canoe on white water. His boat quickly folded around him, but he was well equipped and exceptionally calm. As the folding boat trapped his legs under his kneeling thwart he reached for his rescue saw, cut through one side of his kneeling thwart and freed himself in just a few seconds.
We then attached a line to the end of the boat, and because the large airbags he had kitted his boat with displaced so much water the two of us were able to un-pin the boat with a z-drag.
Have a look at the incident here-
After we had recovered the canoe, he cut off the rest of the kneeling thwart and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day on the river together.
The incident happened very quickly, and it was only through training in white water safety and rescue, practice, good equipment and by remaining calm that dealing with the incident was relatively routine. Two pieces of equipment were very important – having the rescue saw at hand allowed the paddler to rapidly escape from the boat. Large airbags significantly reduced the force of the water on the boat and enabled two people to recover it with a simple z-drag.
