Re: Self-Rescue

Posted by Dave on Jun 16, 2004

I don't know much about rolling etc. but . . . From sad experience, I know there are certain folks who, despite good training, are simply not wired right for water emergencies (drown in a heartbeat). Not much to be done about that except to hang your clothes on a hickory limb and don't go near the water. Fear kills. In any case you want somone alert and competent with you when stretching the limits. For example my dive buddy, a qualified instructor, invited an otherwise qualified diver to go night diving with us. He gave it a shot but soon panicked and clawed his way to the surface using up a bunch of air in the process. We had to and knew how to swim him ashore. If he had been with the wrong people . . . I was pretty comfortable recovering ashore in rough water but I had a highly experienced dive buddy in superb condition and had gained a fair amount of experience in the rough stuff. Test: (1) will your buddy bring you back alive? (2) will you bring your buddy back alive? There are sailing stories about the wife who couldn't do a crew overboard pickup having to sail sadly away from the drowning husband. Since I built the MC 16.5 I haven't paddled in water temperature that didn't call for wet suits. Some good thinking in this thread. Dave

In Response to: Re: Self-Rescue by Terry Mcadams on Jun 15, 2004

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