So… I took a swim today. This marks my fourth swim since I learned to roll at twelve years old. Here is the story: It was a tricky double drop on one of my favorite Norwegian steep creeks called Tora. The water was somewhat high for the top rapid, and at this flow most folks choose to put in below it. I ran it recently with even more water and had a good line, so I decided to give it another go. Needless to say, things did not go as planned. I did not carry enough speed or have the correct angle to punch the sticky hole at the bottom of the second drop. Once in the hole, I could feel the water pounding down directly on top of my boat. After four failed attempts to roll and only one small gasp of breath, I tried to reach down deep to grab the fast water. I almost lost my grip on my paddle without coming out of the hole. After one more roll attempt, I was out of air and knew it was futile to keep fighting it. I had to swim. Upon pulling my skirt, I kept ahold of my paddle and grabbed onto my boat. The water quickly pushed me into an overhanging cliff wall and I found a waist deep ledge to stand on where I could hold my boat from getting sucked back into the hole. This was very lucky because it meant that I did not flush over the next big slide, which would have surely ended poorly for me. After taking stock my surroundings I quickly realized that, although I was in a stable position, I could not possibly escape this situation with help. Thankfully, Antoine Vinay was on the opposite bank with a long throw rope. After I emptied about 50% of the water from my boat, Antoine was able to pull it across. Afterward, he brought me and my paddle across. After this experience I am extremely grateful to be paddling with folks who know their safety procedures and are ready to react well in times like this. Honestly, I also just got plain lucky that the water pushed me into the cliff and not over the next rapid. Lessons: 1) Respect the high water and always set safety (which we did). Even when we have done a drop before and feel comfortable with it, things can still go wrong. 2) Always bring a BIG throw bag. If Antoine had only been using a small 50 foot throw rope, he would not have been able to reach me and I would have been forced to abandon my gear and try to scale the cliff. Make sure you’ve got a long rope. 3) Paddle with people you can trust. I am thankful that Antoine is not just a great paddler, but also knows how to handle himself when things go wrong. 4) It’s cliche but… we are all between swims. When we paddle hard stuff, we will eventually miss a line. Just like in skiing or mountain biking, we all take falls. Often times we come away relatively unscathed. In this case, a combination of strong rescue skills, presence of mind, and a healthy dose of LUCK resulted in this being only a minor incident. I recognize that if any of these factors had been only a little different, this could be been a much more major incident. I have my fingers crossed that it will be another long stretch before I swim again. I am thankful to have come away from this one with no lost gear, no injuries, and able to continue down to paddle the rest of the run.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 20:03:37 +0000
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