Water Safety
- RAFTING AT RANGITATA
By W/O Dave Dean
In early October 2009, the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Physical Training Instructor (PTI) Section headed off to Rangitata Rafting Lodge—based at the bottom of the Rangitata River gorge—for a week of intensive raft guide safety training.
PTIs Sergeant Dusty Miller, Corporal Matt Williams and CPL Nick De Vries, were joined by Warrant Officer Dave Dean and SGT Gareth Hitchcock for the week.
The plan was simple; SGT Miller and CPL Williams would spend the week completing their Grade Three course. The rest of us—complete with learner plates—would be completing our Grade Two course.
From day one, our instructors, Grant ‘Southey’ South and ‘Slee’ Larcombe, were impressive—Southey being the top raft guide trainer in the country. After lots of paddling and getting a feel for the rafts and the water, we scouted out the first Grade Four/Five set of rapids—Rooster Tail and Pigs Trough—a set of rapids to be respected. SGT Miller and CPL Williams went first, with ‘Southey’ in control—high fives all around when they got through. Next up was CPL De Vries, SGT Hitchcock and W/O Dean, with ‘Slee’ in control.
The first rapid was good, but the second rapid saw us stuck in a hole, called Pigs Trough. One of us went for an unintentional swim, and one got repeatedly pounded by the recirculating wave that was trying to swallow the raft.
That’s when ‘Slee’ went into action with the safety guys, initiating a rescue of the raft with the remaining crew and the swimmer. The speed and efficiency of the rescue was impressive and we all learned a lot.
After negotiating the rest of the big rapid sets during the day, we then finished off with a physical test—a swim and rock scramble course. This consisted of:
- jumping into a stretch of fast flowing, freezing (8° C) water
- negotiating currents and eddies
- climbing out on the side
- diving back in and swimming to the other side
- climbing out again up a vertical face
- ‘mountain goating’ our way 200m back up stream
- jumping back into the current from a height, and then
- navigating our way out of the water again!
Between the physical exertion, the cold and the adrenalin, we were buzzing, but fatigued. The scene was set; this was going to be a fun week.
The next four days involved no more unintentional rescues, but lots of intentional flips, simulated rescues, swims and rock scrambles, interspersed with taking turns at rafting the gorge.
By the end of the week, we were exhausted but able to affect any rescue method or self recovery. We walked away from the course as qualified rafting guides, confident in our abilities to lead safe rafting trips.