Sunday’s club paddle round Coquet Island included a rescue practice that became more exciting than expected. There were a few waves about and a bit of a breeze – wind against tide – making conditions more interesting than on recent visits to the island. When a rescue went wrong and led to an unplanned swim, it was followed by some more unintentional swims and genuine rescues. Everyone came home safe and smiling under their own steam, even though one swimmer had an unfortunate encounter with a jellyfish.
This was an experienced group taking advantage of a hot day to practise rescues in real-world conditions and learn from any mistakes. There were plenty of accomplished rescuers on hand to ensure that no-one spent too long in the water. It’s important to do this from time to time because people don’t capsize in flat calm.
The successful rescue captured in the images in this slider (grabbed from video on my helmet camera) includes a practice roll in the background if you look closely. There were quite a few of those.
You can watch the rescue that went wrong in this video also captured on my helmet camera – I wasn’t thinking about making video so it’s a bit erratic. But you can see what the conditions were like and the moment when the rescuer is trying to bring the victim’s boat along side and tips himself in.