Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
A couple of days back a SOL Emergency Bivvy landed at Unsponsored HQ. Essentially it is an alternative to the big orange plastic bivvy bags that most of us are familiar with. But it is much smaller and lighter.
It is certainly a very compact piece of gear when packed up. Size wise it probably is similar to half a regular sized can of your favourite soft drink beverage and weighs in at around 3.8oz. It is small enough to fit within a rescue PFD pocket.
We will have our hands on a new Palm Equipment Lightning throwbag very shortly and will be forcing members of Team Unsponsored to swim to try it out. We had close look a few weeks ago at Palm HQ and it is clear that they are going to be very popular.
Lets just recap the principles of First Aid:
To preserve life
To protect the casualty from further harm
To promote recovery
Remember here that it also goes past the ‘find it, fix it’ to after care. Keep looking out for delayed symptoms and general health following the incident.
Good river guides come across this on a daily basis.
It’s about client care first and foremost.
This short tale from raft guide trainer Mark Hirst highlights the issues.
The DMM Boa is one of the biggest locking carabiners available. It is billed as the ultimate rigging biner and is used by climbers and high rope access technicians. The Boa is super strong and super tough so this makes it ideal for paddling. I’ve had two types of Boa as shown below. They are the essentially the same in design and weight but have different locking systems. The one on the left has the traditional screw gate and the one on the right has a lock safe gate system.
We have a Whetman Equipment Sea Kayak contact line in for review from Whetman Equipment. The system is designed to safely tether two kayaks together for short line contact rescue.
Steve Whetman from Whetman Equipment is coming up with some pretty nifty pieces of gear for use on the water. The Anaconda tow system is designed to make towing another boat as safe as possible. Check it out.
In this series I am pleased to offer a ‘dirty’ First Aid approach. This is suited to kayakers and river users. Using a ‘find it fix it’ approach to incident care and management.
In our last article we looked at the Primary Assessment of a casualty. Now we move forward to a secondary assessment – here we deal direct with an injury or medical condition.
We will under take a full head to toe exam. Time to take a SAMPLE and deal with obvious injuries. Lets not rush at it – it needs to be spot on.
S – Signs and symptoms
A – Allergies
M – Medications
P – Previous medical issues
L – Last meal
E – Events
This sample is simple, we find it we fix it.
If you haven’t done so already take some time and check out the range of gear being developed and produced by UK firm Whetman Equipment.
In addition to some great gear Steve Whetman has also been producing a number of videos. This one on the benefits of the HMS Karabiners is definitely worth a watch.
Old man river Darren Clarkson-King (DAZ) will be supplying a series of ‘Dirty First Aid’ articles for Unsponsored. The series of articles will be posted here over the next few months and will centre around first aid for river runners.
The Petzl eLITE is an ultralight and compact head torch designed for emergency use. I have had one of the 1st generation units for years.
The BBC have carried out some research into the possibility helmet failure due to the use of a helmet cam such as a GoPro (other POV action cameras are available) during impact.
The research is well worth a read.
Here’s a run down of a few of the things that kayakers, canoeists and SUP paddlers may like as a pressie from Father Christmas. All could be useful and all are items that I either own or have tested.
I am assuming that other large bits of kit are already on the list!
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