I've been paddling for a few years now and have seen a good number of paddlers carrying safety whistles but until recently have not heard anyone use theirs. The one time I have heard a safety whistle being used was on the upper Gauley when a nearby rafter took a swim. A friend I was with made 3 quick blows on her whistle and started shouting “swimmer!” It made perfect sense to me. Blow your whistle, get the attention of the people around you, help the swimmer. Since then, I have attached a whistle to my PFD and fortunately have not had the need to use it. But this is where my confusion begins.

I have seen a number of swims over the years and until my trip to the Gauley, have never heard a whistle. It just may happen that no one around had a whistle, but when is necessary to use one? The Ocoee is pretty tame (in my opinion) and sees a lot of traffic but every swim has the potential to go from bad to worse quickly. Yet, I can’t recall a single instance where I have heard a whistle echoing through the Doldrums. Should the safety whistle be reserved for the “hard” rivers?

What about at a whitewater park (such as the USNWC in Charlotte)? Shouldn’t safety be practiced by the individual boater here as well?

Finally, what is universal number of blows for “swimmer?” Do more blows signal a more severe situation (i.e. – one blow for “eyes over here,” two blows for “get your throw ropes ready,” and three blows for “call 911”)?

From the AW safety pages
[www.americanwhitewater.org]

Help/Emergency: Assist the signaler as quickly as possible. Give three long blasts on a police whistle while waving a paddle, helmet or life vest over your head. If a whistle is not available, use the visual signal alone. A whistle is best carried on a lanyard attached to your life vest.
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In my opinion a whistle signal is especially important when a swim or emergency is unexpected and potential rescuers have not noticed it or would not otherwise notice it, and are needed for the rescue. The whistle draws everybody's attention to the situation. A whistle can be a lifesaver as it can be heard much further than just your shouting.

A whistle signal is not so important or is not necessary in situations where the swim is not dangerous or unexpected, such as at a whitewater park, or where the rescuers are already aware of the swimmer.

The three long blasts of the whistle do not mean "swimmer", they mean, "Help! Help! Help!" The people who respond to the signal have to visually determine what the emergency is and respond appropriately.

A single whistle blast can mean a number of things, but basically just calls attention to the person blowing the whistle. Once others look towards the whistler, hand signals can be used for further information. Also when the lead boater goes over a drop and becomes invisible, a single whistle blast means they have made it through, are still upright, have not drowned and the next person can run the drop now.


At the beginning of each river trip, you should discuss with your paddling partners what whistle signals to use and when. Some people will not know what the signals mean and some people might have additional signals.

Howdy,

The "Safety First" Journal from Mar/April 2007 article has my thoughts on this:

"And you gotta have a whistle, but please, do not use it casually. Remember your three basic signals: the super-brief chirp (“I need your attention, so stop picking your nose”), the longer single toot (“I could really use some help, so get moving”), and the repeated mega-blast (“Somebody is trying to die over here!”). Be warned: every time you use your whistle, everyone within earshot will stop and look to see what disaster is about to unfold, and everyone’s pulse will double. If there is no disaster, everyone will be very mad at you for scaring the hell out of them. "

I'm a bit glib here (hey, I'm trying to keep this entertaining) but I hope the point is made. Use your whistle when you REALLY need some help, or when there's no other way to get someone's attention. The short hard CHIRP is the signal I use the most often ("look over here") and I use it rarely.

Jim Sindelar appropriately took me to task on one of my comments. He helped develop the AW safety code, so he deserves a good listen. The AW code has a picture of someone signaling for help, with the caption: " Help/Emergency: Assist the signaler as quickly as possible. Give three long blasts on a police whistle while waving a paddle, helmet or life vest over your head." Jim reminded me that three toots is a fairly standard signal for help among outdoors enthusiasts, and more specific than just "repeated mega-blasts." Three means emergency for hikers, hunters, fishermen, rescue staff, etc. So three it is, for real emergencies.

On the Gauley, there are swims and there are swims. If I dumped a guest out of my raft somewhere bad, say above Shiprock (truly horrible undercut in the main flow, where drownings have occurred), I would definitely, repeatedly, enthusiastically blow 3 times. I'd want everyone within a mile of me to know that a potentially fatal swim was unfolding, and that help will be needed. If I dumped someone at Pillow (swum by thousands annually) I would probably just go get them, and I might "CHIRP" if I needed a hand or if a paddle was getting away.

Long story short: Don't use your whistle unless you really need to. Use three loud, long blasts for real emergencies. This is the official signal. There is also some room for nuance, using the CHIRP or a bit more to get people's attention from time to time. This isn't codified anywhere, but is fairly common practice, and makes sense.

Cheers,
Eric Nies, AW Safety chair