, 3 min, 491 words
Tags: alaska kayak-adventures
I've mentioned a couple of times how the Hand of God rescue was coming up in training. This rescue is useful as a rescue for unconscious kayakers who have flipped over. It's tricky – the "swimmer" can't help you at all, so it requires excellent leverage and a good amount of force. Practicing it involves waiting upside-down in your boat until a rescuer grabs you and flips your boat over, like the hand of a god descending to save you. As you may recall, being upside-down in the water has really challenged me in the past. So to be frank, I'd been dreading the Hand of God rescue for days. It kept being delayed, building up the suspense and nerves. But today was the day. It was our last training drysuit session, so this was our last chance.
I got rescued first, by my buddy. It took me a while to work up the nerve to flip over, which meant we had to do some extra upwind paddling to stay in place. But in the end it really wasn't that bad! I flipped over, I hung out for a few heartstopping seconds, and then my partner grabbed my coaming and yanked my head above the water. From there the flipping process was tricky but okay. Thanks, Erin!
Originally, I also felt nervous about performing the rescue. The stakes felt higher than with other rescues: if I mess it up, this colleague is stuck underwater until I figure it out or they give up and pop their skirt off. But I shouldn't have worried about it – with the help of a couple of live demos and lots of stressed-out watching of training videos, it was actually pretty easy! I also suspect my victim, Tyler, might have helped me a little bit, but he strenuously denies such allegations.
On the whole, this was a useful lesson in mental preparation. I built this rescue up in my head to be a big deal, but in the end it wasn't so bad. Sometimes, stressing out about something just creates more stress. I'm also so proud that I can now semi-comfortably hang out underwater and trust a friend to rescue me.
In other news, our training trip is coming up! We depart very early on Sunday morning, and we'll be gone for five solid days, returning late on May 17. In that time, we explore Aialik Bay, check out Fox Island, and generally "get our guide on" in preparation for the season. The next two days (Friday and Saturday) are largely devoted to preparation for our expedition. I am so excited. Also nervous. But mostly excited.