Victim was pinned with the topside of the canoe open to the current against a rock in the middle of the river. His left leg-thigh was trapped against the rock by the bottom of the canoe. He was clothed in street clothes and was submerged by water from the waist down. Access to the victim was gained only by boat and motor because of his location midpoint of the river. The current was too strong to send A rescuer to him from the shore. Throw bags were useless because he was so thoroughly pinned by the hydraulic pressure. We took a risk and drive our rescue boat up the rapids to attempt to rescue him. The water temp was only 45 degree’s so time was not on our side. Initially we attempted to try and pull the canoe off of him with a static rope and the winch from a ATV. The winch was rated for 4500 lbs and multiple attempts failed. The strain would either stop the winch or the structural supports on the canoe failed/broke. The canoe was an Old Town Discovery in the 14 foot to 16 foot length constructed from plastic. This canoe design does not lend it self well to being forcibly moved in situations like this. There was only about 4 to 6 inches of the gunnel out of the water midway on the canoe, the rest was completely submerged. At this point I asked the victim if this was his canoe and he said yes. I told him I was going to cut the the side of the canoe in a couple of places in order to release some of the hydraulic pressure. We used a bow saw and a splitting maul to do the cutting. The cut ended up going completely to cut the canoe in half in order to get him free. He suffered only hypothermia and was out of the hospital within 3 hours and walked away.