Midweek Paddlers (Asheville Area)
Craig Fender · Incident Report:
I am writing this post to both thank the dozen or so fellow paddlers that paused their run and helped me out today. We were paddling the release on the Upper Nantahala River…I was paddling one of our duckies and had aced all of the main rapids upstream and we just had ‘Tha Mank’ remaining before we would take out and run a 2nd lap.
Well, somewhere towards the top of the rapid the nose of my duckie caught an exposed boulder just ever so slightly…in a split second I was sideways and proceeded to fall out of my duckie into the main flow of the river…almost immediately I somehow hit my helmet on a boulder and got a concussion.
I proceeded to take a long swim through most of the mank…I was initially holding onto my paddle as I bobbed up and down thru the first drop or vs two, but I was having a hard time swimming and I was starting to swallow water. I immediately realized the severity of the situation and let go of my paddle and started to swim with all of my might towards the left side of the river…I didn’t make it in time and got swept down another drop, drank some more water and my sense of urgency kicked into yet another gear and I once again swam as hard as I could to the left bank and just managed to grab ahold of the boulders of the bank enough to stop myself from being swept further downstream.
At this point I am REALLY struggling…I am completely gassed…my head is absolutely pounding and I have a severe headache…I am also completely nauseous and bend over and start dry heaving.
Fortunately another group of kayakers was coming down shortly behind us…I saw one of them pull over to the right side of the river, but he didn’t see me…I yelled across the river for ‘HELP’ and the fellow paddler finally heard me and turned around to see what was up…it took multiple semi~verbal exchanges back and forth before the fellow paddler realized that I was not okay and that I needed some assistance.
He very quickly made his was across the river to me…my head was POUNDING, I was completely gassed after my swim, and I was completely nauseous and dry heaving over and over again…I took my helmet off, took my PFD off, then I asked the other paddler to unzip the back zipper on my dry suit so I could just breather, decompress, and try and release a little interior pressure…I am also getting more claustrophobic as I approach 50~years of age and I just needed to feel not so confined under the circumstances. The whole group of fellow paddlers world very well together, had good communication, and within a couple more minutes the has sent my recovered duckie across the river on a rope, they instructed me to get back in my boat and lay down, then they ferried me back across the river to the safety of the roadside river bank.
I was grateful to be alive, and grateful for everyone else’s efforts on my behalf. A cop had stopped by this point and I was informed that an ambulance was on its way. I was still super nauseated and my eyes just wanted to close as I became quite light sensitive for a period of time.
I am now back home, and although this incident may not seem as extreme as others…here are a few takeaways that I have and that maybe can benefit other paddlers moving forward:
1. Things can completely change in a split second on the river…I had aced all of the other rapids on the run, and not just managed to not swim, but paddled the them with confidence and seemed to be making all of the right moves and strokes…until the very nose of my duckie just caught enough of a rock to turn me sideways.
2. I was already really tired before getting on the river today…a couple of nights in a row with poor sleep, after a long physical work week, and we attended a wedding last night…IF this wasn’t just the 2nd time that I was going paddling post~helene then I likely would have just slept in today and not gone paddling…but with the added severe draught and nothing else currently being paddleable I really wanted to get out on the water.
3. If I am being honest, I am really lacking on my own personal safety and rescue training. I should have much more practical knowledge and training on how better to avoid these situations, then also how to help myself and others should this or another situation present themselves in the future.
4. I can’t state enough how hitting my helmet on a rock and sustaining a concussion soon upon entering the swim made simply getting back in my boat not an option, it made me slightly disoriented, and it affected my ability to make lightning fast life saving decisions and maneuvers while being swept down whitewater rapids.
All in all I will be okay, my pride is a little hurt and I am completely wore out from the experience, but I did learn a couple of things and I am grateful for my fellow paddlers that kept me safe and helped rescue me