Paddler's Safety & Cold Water Survival

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PADDLER'S SAFETY & COLD WATER SURVIVAL

As interest in outdoor recreation experiences historic growth, there are great numbers of folks getting out in the woods and on the waters who are completely unprepared.

I see no posts here about water safety and cold water survival for canoers and kayakers, so find it worth sharing a couple .pdfs on safety checklists and cold water paddling.

As experienced on the water as many of us may be, the info in these two .pdfs is worth going over every year, and even more worth sharing with less-experienced paddlers who may be venturing out for the first time. Please review, print, and share.
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Paddler's Safety Checklist, from NFCT:
(printable .pdf here and attached to this post)

NFCT-paddlers-safety-checklist-1280-01.png
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NFCT-paddlers-safety-checklist-1280-02.png
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Even though summer is upon us in the northern hemisphere, many waters are still very cold. Being prepared for cold water, and learning how to PAT--Prevent, Assess, and Treat--hypothermia can save lives.

Cold Water Survival from NFCT:
(printable .pdf here and attached to this post)

NFCT-ColdWater-20090302-1280-01.png
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NFCT-ColdWater-20090302-1280-02.png
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Be safe & have fun.

Happy paddling!
 

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Road

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The “Cold water boot camp” videos on ewetube have pretty good info too, especially for non paddlers.
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Cool, thanks for that.

If you would, next time you run across them on youtube, click the Share link and copy the URL; click the 3 dots above here in the Menu bar and select Media; then paste the URL in the box that pops up.

Then the vid will show up here in this thread for readers.

Here's what it looks like in a browser (no idea what it looks like in the app):

addmedia.png

Thanks for adding to the thread!

.
 

John Bishop

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Like this? :)

This is one of many videos they have done. Some, like this one are a few minutes long to a few that are close to an hour...

 
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Road

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Like this? :)

This is one of many videos they have done. Some, like this one are a few minutes long to a few that are close to an hour...

.
That's an excellent vid, with a long set of statistics that are important to understand and remember.

Thanks for posting it.

I wish the water end of "overland related recreation" received a bit more traffic here. I find this info critical.
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John Bishop

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I’m on my county’s Swift Water Rescue team, so I’m probably tuned in more to these issues than those that aren’t avid water recreationists.

I cringe at some of the water crossings I see in “overlanding” videos.
 
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Road

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I’m on my county’s Swift Water Rescue team, so I’m probably tuned in more to these issues than those that aren’t avid water recreationists.

I cringe at some of the water crossings I see in “overlanding” videos.
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I can imagine. So many outdoor recreational activities, especially now with the huge surge in interest, is undertaken by folks with little to no knowledge of simple safety methods, or proper procedures to ensure safety of all participants.

I hope you add things from time to time you find worthwhile to bring up. Your experience and background can be invaluable.
 

John Bishop

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I hope you add things from time to time you find worthwhile to bring up. Your experience and background can be invaluable.
lol. Thanks. The two big things I see every summer is (1) Wallyworld sit-on kayaks are not intended for dynamic water, especially class II and III rapids or higher, (2) Pool floats and tubes are not meant for rivers, especially if there’s rapids. Rocks eat those things and will make you swim.
 
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