DON’T JUST LIE THERE, DO SOMETHING
SWIM TEAM
To whitewater enthusiasts, swimming is what we do when we blow a line or tempt fate by counting the days since the last time. Being confident swimming in whitewater allows us to push our limits and self-rescue from less-than-pleasant situations. It’s helpful to think of our swimming bodies behaving like boats in current. Understanding three central concepts will make swimming more pleasant and effective: Constant motion; swim- ming positions; and breathing technique.
CONSTANT MOTION When swimming in whitewater, we can move faster than the cur- rent, we will call this steering; we can move slower than it, we will call this ferrying; or we can move with it, we will call this floating. Whether we are steering, ferrying or floating, we are always pro- gressing downstream and have to make a plan. Safe swimming is about being proactive rather than reactive.
Just like in our boats, we try to catch eddies high, power
through holes and boof waves and ledges while swimming. All these maneuvers require us to be under power—steering. When we want to move laterally, we need to be moving slower than the current—ferrying. Ferrying while swimming is harder than in a boat, requiring more planning and larger angles. Finally, when we are tired we float.
SWIMMING POSITIONS There are two basic swimming positions: Defensive, on our backs, and offensive, on our stomachs. The first thing we learn about swimming in whitewater is to roll
over, lie on our back and keep our feet up—the defensive posi- tion. It has its time and place—when we are swimming into an unavoidable hazard that we cannot climb over, when we need a rest or when we are unable to swim anymore. The offensive position is used almost any other time and has many variations. The breaststroke is recommended when we’re slowly maneuvering, picking a line, or trying to lift our heads high above a crashing wave. The front crawl gives us a boost of power to cross current or for a long, powerful ferry. Using current to log roll us as we swim across the eddy line helps us stay on the surface.
BREATHING TECHNIQUE We should breath out whenever we get a chance, so we can breath in again—our lungs are only so big. We also need to re- member to breath in as we are traveling through the trough of a wave. Remember we do not travel over waves, we travel through them—if a wave is breaking, it is going to splash you in the face, making this a bad time to breath. Stay on the surface whenever possible. If you have to go under a wave, become flat and duck dive, like a surfer in the ocean escaping the break. Turn your face to the side so the break hits your ear rather than your face. And last but not least, keep your lips open, teeth closed and tongue on the roof of your mouth. This will keep water out of your mouth, avoiding a dreaded shot straight to the lungs.
Floating feet first downriver isn’t swimming and isn’t likely to get you where you need to go. In the water and out of our boats, we still need to think like boaters, using power, the current and always looking for dry lines.
Matt Cuccaro is a senior instructor for Rescue Canada Re- source Group, a national freestyle open canoe champion and experienced whitewater swimmer.
www.rapidmag.com 37
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