L-4 ACA Swiftwater Rescue Course, Nov. 2-3, 2013

[Mike S]

"I swear, I do not flip my rescuer's boat when I really need one!"
Good to know T

[Jeffrey]

The class was awsome. GREAT instructors, would advise anyone who kayaks to take it and be a help to yourself,your team and other paddlers. A big shout out to everyone who took it with me. Was nice to have met all of you and I hope to see y'all down river in the future




Jeff

[ShayA]

It was a great class and great to meet some new people. Thanks to all the instructors!

[OzarkTom]

It's always great to see so much good feedback! Thanks again to Entergy for going above and beyond to make sure that in spite of a significant change in circumstances on their end, that we still had water for the program!

We had 12 participants come and brave the November weather (which turned out to be quite mild luckily). Both days were full of hands on practice and a lot of personal challenge to try new things. If you haven't taken one of our courses before, you might be a bit surprised at how physical it is. At the end of each day these folks are BEAT! You spend a lot of time in the water - swimming, doing rope work, unpinning boats, chasing gear down, rescuing "weak and unresponsive swimmers" and many other river rescue skills. These folks really put out the effort and as a result are far better prepared to act when they need to, and most of all, know a lot more about how to avoid problems to begin with!

A big thanks to my co-instructors Lorraine, Judy and Ty for all their great teaching and hard work to make this a success.

Cheers!

Tom

[justanovice]

A brief message post cannot begin to show my gratitude to you for offering such a course. I have thought many times that I need to take a SWR course, but I simply lacked the confidence to take that plunge. Without a doubt, I learned more about physics in two days with Tom, Lorraine, Judy, and T. than I did in an entire year of high school physics. More importantly, I learned some practical strategies for self-rescue and live bait rescues. If you are a kayaker and you have never taken this course, you need to. If I can do this, anybody can (and should). Without a doubt, it was one of the most physically demanding courses I have ever taken. Did I learn everything? No way. In fact, I would probably need to take the course several times before I could confidently say that I mastered all areas. However, I know so much more than I did before taking the class. It showed me my strengths and my weaknesses. Knots have always been impossible for me to grasp (thanks for your patience), and I know that my rope-throwing technique stinks. I also know that it will only improve with repeated practice. I'm hoping to construct a Z drag-line as practice in the backyard. What a powerful concept! Thank you to all of you who give your time, patience, and encouragement to those of us who love the sport but need a lot of guidance. You are saving lives, I'm sure.