Story: Andrew Wallace
Hampton Canoe Club

Paddlers training with the ‘blue light’ rescue services? It sounds a really good thing to do, and at Hampton Canoe Club, we thought this would be an excellent idea. But who to train with? The club is based where the coverage of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on the Thames from the estuary up to Molesey Lock meets the coverage of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service on the Thames in Surrey. Obvious answer: train with both.

Training with rescuers

So on a Monday evening in June, eight experienced paddlers trained with Surrey Fire and Rescue Service in and on the calm waters of Shepperton Marina (access had kindly been arranged by WhiteWater The Canoe Centre, which is based there). Two days later, the same team trained with the Teddington crew of the RNLI in and on the Thames near Teddington Lock.

First up: an explanation of the features of the varied boats we’d brought along: a canoe, a K1, a K2, a white water boat and a sea kayak. The presence, or absence, of toggles, buoyancy, bulkheads, deck lines, etc. were discussed. This was followed by a live demonstration of some of our essential skills, such as emptying a K1, and the ‘Hand of God’ rescue.

Then onto the water for the main session: one boat full of rescuers was given hints and had time to practise how to rescue our various craft. With their sturdy RIBs, they were really good at rescuing canoes, and found emptying a K1 as tricky as novices usually do.

Meanwhile another boat of rescuers were trying their hand at rescuing paddlers pretending to be unwell or injured in their closed cockpit kayaks (practising rescues from open cockpit kayaks or canoes would have been too easy). First, they rescued a paddler from a white water boat: that turned out to be surprisingly easy, they just pulled the boat and paddler straight up onto the lifeboat! Then they rescued a paddler from a sea kayak with a keyhole cockpit. Finally they rescued a brave paddler, upside down in her sea kayak with its tiny ocean cockpit. That needed a quick ‘Hand of God’ rescue, then they eased her out onto the back deck of the kayak, and up into the lifeboat.

Partway through the session, the rescuers’ boats swapped places, so all the crews could tackle the full range of the planned agenda. At the end of each evening’s session, paddlers and rescuers were all happy with what had been achieved: the rescuers had a better understanding of how best to rescue paddlers, kayaks and canoes; and paddlers were impressed by the skills and resources of the rescuers. Follow-on sessions are already under discussion. Other clubs considering training with the ‘blue light’ rescuers can find our session plan on the club website.

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has been saving lives along all the tidal Thames in the Port of London since 2002. The RNLI station at Teddington in suburban west London covers the tidal Thames down to Richmond, and the non-tidal Thames up to Molesey, by Hampton Court. Afterwards they said, “Thanks so much yet again to you and your marvellous club-mates for a brilliant session last night. Everyone enjoyed it and found it very informative and useful, especially our newer crew, many of whom were there.”

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory rescue service for the county of Surrey, and its remit includes responding to flooding and other water rescue incidents, alongside responding to fires and road accidents. The crews immediately saw the advantage in training with paddlers, and “were all very complimentary about the event itself and the members of the club.” They have expressed an interest in rolling out further training to other watches and stations.