Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Vlieland 2008 - Heel-hook

Picture of the day 3 - by Axel Schoevers
In the morning one of the participants did a part of the assessment for NKB-sea kayak coach: " PvB 3.1. - het geven van een les" . A group of intermediate sea kayakpaddlers was introduced to the so called heel-hook- (or foot-hook) rescue.
The heel-hook is a method of re-entering the kayak where the swimmer pulls himself up the rear deck of his kayak by using his leg muscles. In order to do so, the swimmer hooks his heel (or foot) inside the cockpit right under the front deck (or under the thigh braces of a keyhole cockpit). In Dutch seakayak-courses mostly the X-rescue with a re-entry between the kayaks of the rescuer and the swimmer is practized. Advantage of the heel-hook re-entry is that it requires less upper body strength and flexibility.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Hans,

Very interesting rescue method. I didn´t know this technique and surely will try it.
As you describe that with this method less bodystrength and -flexibility is required, this could be an important alternative for some paddlers; being a bit older or just being very tired.

Regards
René

Have a good time at Vlieland!!!!!
Greetings to Axel ;-)