You are very lucky your swimmer did not suffer a leg entrapment. At :29 you can see he is trying to stand up in the fast current, and he continued to try to do so until hitting deeper water. Instructing all river runners on the proper way to swim in swift water saves lives, and your partner is very lucky to have not gotten his legs upstream of some nasty undercut. This film is a textbook lesson on how NOT to swim a rapid: Feet up & downriver, backstroke ferry to get where you want to be.
Very true. I got my foot stuck between rocks just at the very put in on the middle fork. I was just pushing off and my foot got stuck, but I was only in two feet of water so no big deal. Later I saw two people wading in waist deep water to help another boat off of some rocks and thought how dangerous that was, and told them so later. After thinking about it they agreed that it was a dumb thing to do.
I just can't read the comments here, but that person swimming was actually swimming... by my understanding you want to get your feet up and float on your back. Jeez. What a trainwreck.
@@kenjackson4471 It seems very high to me, much higher than when we ran it this past July. It still took out two kayakers. CFS flow on the MFSR is much higher than you might think. Just jump in & see how far & how quickly it will take you downstream.
@@richstex4736 Yeah, it's a nasty spot for kayaks. Some of our yakers have had a real hard time, either against the wall or on the hole on the right. Sorry for your loss.
Well that depends- you can (and I suspect thats what happens here) very well push off rocks or other river obstacles with your feet (unless they're logs, that would be a bad idea..) instead of body parts more susceptible to damage like soft skin, ribcage, etc.. OF COURSE judgement is important here as always when swimming whitewater, one reason I think the inexperienced with whitewater swimming should stay off swift flowing rivers at least w/out their helmet which is the real mistake here!
