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Friday, August 2, 2013

When its not practice


Eleven paddlers turned up for Thursday evening practice at St. Philips.  Things were pretty tame in the cove so we went for a paddle up to Topsail Beach.  One of the guys was a novice paddler and when the sea state got to where I thought he might be getting uncomfortable, I kept a little closer.

No sooner had I made that decision and over he went.  We had a swimmer in an unscripted moment.  Practice became real and it was good to complete the rescue without any hiccups.


At Topsail Beach we turned and headed back in a quartering sea.  Again we had a swimmer.  This time Dean did the rescue as I lagged behind to act a sweep.

We made our way back to St. Philips without further mishap as the sun set in a clear sky over Bell Island.  It was reassuring to realize the rescues went off just like it was practice..  I guess that's why we practice.

2 comments:

  1. hey now - Sean deserves half the credit on that rescue...i ended up with the kayaks stern-to-stern (I know, I know) and could not keep a good eye on things happening behind me... Sean quickly moved in and steadied the kayak from the other side so the person in the water had a good solid platform to crawl up on... it became a duel effort... Although not intentional it was all good practice for a rather warm (air and water) Thursday evening session.

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  2. OK, credit given then. I was watching as I caught up from sweeping and thought to myself when I saw Ron go in too, too many cooks spil the broth.

    Its one thing to do a rescue when scripted, something altogether different when it happens at random. I could probably have blown the whistle to alert the rest of the group we had a swimmer but felt I could handle it promptly myself. In fact, I don't think anyone realized I had done one.

    Tony :-)

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