Bow Roll Rescue demonstration

Last Saturday Bernhard and Stephan demonstrated the Bow Roll Rescue at the meeting of the Dutch seakayak instructors at Uithoorn. The Bow Roll Rescue is a technique for righting a capsized kayaker who hasn’t been able to perform a wet exit and needs help getting upright for air. The technique has been developed by John Martin, a sea kayak coach living in the US. John has written an extensive article on the Bow Roll Rescue in the October Issue of Seakayaker magazine. You can also find the text on the website of Seakayaker Mag (with links to video's of this technique). René has written a comment on the Bow Roll Rescue in his weblog (part1, part 2).

In mine opinion, the Bow Roll rescue is a valuable addition to the known rescue techniques. The demonstration showed that (just like the other techniques!) it requires good practice before you can successfully upright a non-cooperative victim. I am not sure how effective the Bow Roll works in rougher conditions. Like René said, you end up in not quit the most stable position. And before that wind and waves might bring the kayak of the rescuer out of the 90 degrees position into a more or less parallel position to the kayak of the victim - thus bringing the rescuer in an awkward position in which it is difficult to apply any torque to the bow of the capsized kayak. A paddle leash is also very useful in the Bow Roll Rescue.

And now I would love to practice the Bow Roll Rescue. But I am afraid I won't find many volunteers in Woerden to join me now in November. Water temperature is about 7 degrees, air temperature 3-5 degrees Celsius... No problem in a drysuit...