in my opinion this is a good explanatory video
regards
Michael
regards
Michael
Last edited:
-
Happy Marine Mammal Rescue Day! 🐳🐬🦭🦦
How to Use a Water Rescue Throw Bag (explanatory video)
- Thread starter kahel
- Start date
My throw bag is over 35 years old, and not nearly as snazzy or technological as the bags shown in the video. Our canoe club back in Vancouver held an annual clinic on river rescue techniques. Most people could not accurately throw the bag any great distance. It takes practice. I think accurate throwers most commonly used the underhand throw.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2013
- Messages
- 1,343
- Reaction score
- 341
Although it was many years ago, I was a lifeguard and took great pride in being able to toss a ring buoy to a select target. When I got my first throw bag I quickly found out it was pretty much the same motion as I used with the buoy. Not sure how most folks toss their bag but I found an underhand toss has always been my best bet for distance and, more importantly, accuracy. Of course, your mileage may vary. Bottom line, whatever works best for you is the way to go.
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
Throwing a throwline bag is just like in real life:
Practice makes perfect.
And it doesn't really matter how you throw - the main thing is that the bag gets to where it's supposed to go.
On our last trip, I practiced throwing a throwline bag with my friends - both on land and in the water. After a while, everyone got better and better in terms of accuracy and distance.
Best regards
Michael
honestly?! I'm happy and very reassured that my buddies are good at this.
Practice makes perfect.
And it doesn't really matter how you throw - the main thing is that the bag gets to where it's supposed to go.
On our last trip, I practiced throwing a throwline bag with my friends - both on land and in the water. After a while, everyone got better and better in terms of accuracy and distance.
Best regards
Michael
honestly?! I'm happy and very reassured that my buddies are good at this.
In the river he uses for the demo, a throw bag was not really necessary, most people could swim out of water moving that slowly. The video he splices in is more realistic, where the fella is getting swept down a fast set of rapids.
When I did my white water training on the French River, they had us positioned on a really fast chute, you had to throw in front of the victim, and then immediately sit down and brace your feet, as the drag from the victim was quite impressive. I'm not sure about his "mobile belay", or whatever he called it, I think running across slippery rocks when the victim might engage the drag at any second is a recipe for disaster.
Having 50 feet of floating rope is a requirement for all vessels in Ontario, you can buy kits for your your power boats, but I always have a throw bag. The thing is, I have never used a throw bag once in any white water situations. When I had students running white water, we positioned safety people along the route, with throw bags, but we never deployed one. In the few incidences where capsizes occurred, people just floated to an eddy and got out.
I'm not a dedicated white water junky, just a fella that runs or portages it on trips, but for those who play around in whitewater, how common is it to use a throw bag?
When I did my white water training on the French River, they had us positioned on a really fast chute, you had to throw in front of the victim, and then immediately sit down and brace your feet, as the drag from the victim was quite impressive. I'm not sure about his "mobile belay", or whatever he called it, I think running across slippery rocks when the victim might engage the drag at any second is a recipe for disaster.
Having 50 feet of floating rope is a requirement for all vessels in Ontario, you can buy kits for your your power boats, but I always have a throw bag. The thing is, I have never used a throw bag once in any white water situations. When I had students running white water, we positioned safety people along the route, with throw bags, but we never deployed one. In the few incidences where capsizes occurred, people just floated to an eddy and got out.
I'm not a dedicated white water junky, just a fella that runs or portages it on trips, but for those who play around in whitewater, how common is it to use a throw bag?
rather have one and not have to use it
than to have to use one and not have one.
than to have to use one and not have one.
All canoes in our club carried a throw bag on day trips, but I have never seen anyone use one. And we paddled gnarly, boulder-filled rapids pretty much year-round in the Vancouver area. To use a throw bag would require that lead boats eddy out, and the paddlers stand on shore, waiting for the distant, trailing boats to arrive, all the while hoping for or expecting a capsize. No one would do that, other than for sport, such as the end of the infamous Adams Canyon, in which up to 40% of the boats usually capsized, floating out into a large eddy. Otherwise, If the leading boats eddied out in a calm eddy, then a capsized boat would self rescue. On most of our rivers, calm eddies., in long rapids, didn’t exist. Canoe-over-canoe rescue was the most common technique, in Class 3 rapids, usually multiple times per day. Most paddlers rarely capsized in Class 1 or 2, unles they were surfing a wave.
That being said, Kathleen and I have often used our throw bag on our northern Canada wilderness trips. The bags make great clothes lines. We have also used the bag as an extended bow line, to secure our canoe to a boulder or tree, while on shore. We usually trip alone, which means there is no one to throw the bag to. But we always take it. It’s a rule, and clothes lines are convenient.
That being said, Kathleen and I have often used our throw bag on our northern Canada wilderness trips. The bags make great clothes lines. We have also used the bag as an extended bow line, to secure our canoe to a boulder or tree, while on shore. We usually trip alone, which means there is no one to throw the bag to. But we always take it. It’s a rule, and clothes lines are convenient.
Last edited:
During the early indoor portion of my swift water rescue training, we had to be able to throw the bag to a partner and back again across the width of a standard school swimming pool. I always hated the task of reloading the bag. There is no quick way of getting it done correctly. Draping the loose rope across your back and shoulder seemed to offer the best and fastest method, but it still sucked.
Yeah, yknpdlr. It is a true pain! No one enjoys reloading the bag.
This might be too picky, but I was not happy with the self-rescue at the beginning of the video. We were always taught that after a capsize
1. Hold on to your paddle,
2. Get to the upstream end of your boat,
3. Check for you partner,
4. Grab the painter,
5. On your back, attempt to swim the boat to shore,
6. Don’t stand up until your butt touches bottom.
Number 2 is very important, as a canoe full of water could crush a paddler against rocks. These swimmers did not do that. They didn’t grab the painter, which makes it much easier to drag the canoe to shore.They didn’t swim on their backs, which keeps their feet up, which lowers the potential for bruising their legs against rocks. Number 6 minimizes the potential for foot entrapment.
I know it was only a demonstration, but a demonstration in a river safety video should be done properly.
1. Hold on to your paddle,
2. Get to the upstream end of your boat,
3. Check for you partner,
4. Grab the painter,
5. On your back, attempt to swim the boat to shore,
6. Don’t stand up until your butt touches bottom.
Number 2 is very important, as a canoe full of water could crush a paddler against rocks. These swimmers did not do that. They didn’t grab the painter, which makes it much easier to drag the canoe to shore.They didn’t swim on their backs, which keeps their feet up, which lowers the potential for bruising their legs against rocks. Number 6 minimizes the potential for foot entrapment.
I know it was only a demonstration, but a demonstration in a river safety video should be done properly.
Practice helps. Get people to swim some rapids that are safe. Practice line placement and belaying from shore. Have people get the feel of swinging in the current.
Not that long ago I was leading a trip on a pretty easy river. We had a capsize in the only dangerous spot. I hit my friend in the nose with a throw line but he ignored it. I had to tell him several times to "grab the throw line."
Not that long ago I was leading a trip on a pretty easy river. We had a capsize in the only dangerous spot. I hit my friend in the nose with a throw line but he ignored it. I had to tell him several times to "grab the throw line."
Similar threads
