RICKA Flatwater Training - July 9, 2022

Assisted rescue with Bill

I was back on the Woonasquatucket River on Saturday – this time at the Stillwater Reservoir or Stump Pond in Smithfield. 

With COVID, it has been a couple of years since RICKA has done much in the way of training, but we were doing a Flatwater session for new and experienced paddlers. New paddlers learned basic strokes, and everybody got to practice deep water rescues. We had nine “students” with four “facilitators” and a mix of boats – sea kayaks, rec. kayaks, a solo canoe and a tandem canoe.

Getting the big boat up on the gunwales

It wasn’t always pretty, but everybody did a wet exit and was able to get in the boat. No surprise that sea kayaks with bulkheads were the easiest to get empty. For me, the shorter the rec. kayak the tougher it was to get up on the gunwales to empty (might be easier for someone in a kayak). 

I was able to get my solo canoe empty with a flip, but couldn’t get back in the boat unassisted without swamping it again - assisted I was fine. Chuck and Cindy in the tandem boat got back in unassisted a couple of different ways (one-on-each-side and stirrup) but couldn’t get the boat empty unassisted. That’s a big boat to try to flip, or even lug over the gunwales.

Chuck and Cindy back in the boat

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My Pictures
Stump Pond from Rhode Island Blueways