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Re: Deck Rescue and Personal Safety (Tsunami Ranger story)
Dale McKinnon
12/24/07 #3934
While I lived in California (on the San Mateo coastline) I witnessed a rescue by the Tsunami Rangers in 10' swell/breakers. Apparently, each paddler had a 50' line of 1/8' nylon line as part of their paddling kit. I can't figure out any other reason for the following of what they did and how they did it, because this is how they rescued one of their own:
One paddler was injured but concious. (I found out later that he disclocated his shoulder trying a high brace on a big wave.) Two other paddlers rescued him. To get the injured paddler through the line of breakers, they “hog-tied” one kayak to the other by bringing them together (like a catamaran) and passed a single loop with a slip knot around the bow, ran the line down the length of and between the kayaks, then wrapped another slip-knotted loop around the sterns of both kayaks and tightened the whole thing up. The injured kayaker remained in his boat, with a fellow paddler/rescuer next to him.
Another paddler/rescuer acted as a drogue by back paddling to allow the “catamaran” through the breakers.
He attached his 50' line to the aft line of the “catamaran” then flipped a loop around his bow with enough line to stretch to his cockpit where I guess he wrapped the line around a leg or held it between his knees (I don't really know how he secured it). It was a bit tense to watch, but it worked. Apparently all the yanking and pulling forces on the “drogue boat” were absorbed by the tight loop around his bow, and at the precise moment that the “catamaran” was on the face of a wave about to break, the second rescue boat released his line which slipped off his bow and the catamaran rode the wave into the beach. The drogue was necessary to make sure the “catamaran” was faced the correct way to ride the wave because the single healthy paddler in the catamaran simply couldn't control it at surfing speed. There was a danger of broaching.
I remembered this event after reading the post about how Oscar slung his leg over another ski and brought it through the Gate. The fact is 2 skis together are far more stable than one ski, alone. This information is useless if someone's ski skitters away in the wind, but if the ski is there and conditions are too rough and you gotta get yourselves home, that 1/8“ nylon line might help. It doesn't take up much room.
