2. 2009

Swiftwater Rescue Training

Tim Kelahan of the Rescue Company teaches swiftwater rescue for local boaters and the Water Rescue Team.
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Tim Kelahan shows the group some basics of rescue using throwbags.
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Tim Kelahan shows the group some basics of rescue using throwbags.

AlaskaWater RescueTim Kelehan2009Matanuska Susitna Valley

  • Tim Kelahan shows the group some basics of rescue using throwbags.
  • Frank Kirk plays the victim while Tim Kelahan demonstrates rescue from a foot entanglement in a river.
  • The idea of rescue in a foot entanglement is to get the rescue rope as low as possible and pull upstream. Easy to do out of the water.
  • Rescuers practice building the systems for rescues of different sorts.
  • Rescuers suit up to get wet while staying dry.
  • Part of the day's training was a ride down the Matanuska River in - and out of - these rafts.
  • A rescuer tosses a throwbag across the channel to set up a crossing line.
  • Going for the catch as the throwbag crosses the channel.
  • Crossing a deep river with a strong current is no easy task.
  • Ripping currents threaten to pull the rescuer off his crossing line and take him downstream.
  • Not only is it hard to move across at this point, it's a bit tricky to get a breath too.
  • A large log is moved into position in the current to simulate a "strainer", an obstruction of some sort that presents the danger of snagging a swimmer and pushing them under..
  • The strong currents provide for a challenging time keeping our strainer in place.
  • Rescuers brace for impact as a swimmer hits the strainer.
  • An unsuccessful meeting with a strainer takes a victim underwater, a potentially fatal situation all too easy to get into on a river.
  • The line of holders waits for the next rescuer to go through the drill.
  • A successful swimming attack straight at a strainer should carry one directly over, rather than the alternative of being sucked under.
  • Legs fly as a rescuer makes it over the strainer.
  • Water piles up behind a rescuer making a catch on the strainer.
  • Another successful swim over the log.
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