more thoughts on seatbelts

[James]

Just thought I`d share an outfitting story from this week. Got stuck in the base of one of the drops on the seven sisters on the Rouge River in Quebec a few days ago. Blew my line bad, rolled up above the drop with no speed. Anyways, got stuck in the base of the drop, waiting for my safety back up to jump in on live bait and pull me and the boat out. I waited for a while (felt like a long time), with my head just under water but not wanting to move much, as I wanted to give the rescuer a good chance to grab my boat. Regardless, got a few ends in the base of the drop, just as I started to really want air. During one of these flips I got forcibly pulled out of my boat, skirt popped, sucked out of my thigh straps and all. Shortly after flushed free, as did the boat. Total time stuck: about 10 seconds according to friends, felt longer.

So glad afterwards I don`t creek with a seatbelt on. on dry land I thought my thigh strap set up was almost too tight to swim out of without pulling the release. Yet when push came to shove, I came flying out.

I was actually more scared out of the boat than in it, as I had seen someone get recirc`d in that drop for almost half a minute out of his boat.

If I can find a good digital camera I will take photos of the outfitting. Short bulkhead and thighstraps made from diver`s weight belt webbing, with a metal diver`s belt buckle, designed for easy and positive release.

It is going to be a long while before I try to run that drop again!

[aldenb]

which drop was it? i recall there's one that's much scarier than the rest (the 2nd or 3rd, i thought) and some of the big boys like steve fisher swam there during the "Big-Water Invitational" a few years back.

Alden

[James]

Those guys got worked in drop #3, it is a single drop, whereas the drops directly upstream and downstream each have two connected drops. We only run the sisters at very low levels, when #3 is pretty managable compared to the other drops.

I got stuck in #2, which forms a horseshoe type hole at the bottom. Nasty spot. A guy gets seriously worked in Clive's eye production film from two years ago, his kayak film which I can't remember the name of right now.

[abird]

yes, i believe i saw that. the guy was getting worked on river left (as opposed to river right, like fisher). that's pretty cool though, id love to get up there some day
Alden