Was out boating on the "new" Wilson Creek with a buddy. Flow felt like a low medium to medium level. We ran Triple Drop & ran into another group of 3-4 guys. The other group went ahead & ran Unnrunnable Rock by taking the boof line. My group noticed some commotion at the bottom of the rapid & one was draining his boat & telling us to hold. After a minute we run the rapid to see whats going on. One guy swam & is on a rock in the middle of the rapid near the bottom. My buddy reaches him first. He says he is complaining of pain in his arm & thinks he broke it. We use his spray skirt to make create a makeshift sling for the arm. We decide the water at this particular spot is low enough to create a sort of makeshift dam with our bodies while the injured person wades across. For those familiar with this rapid there is a more shallow part of the river left side of it. Once we got him to shore I did a quick evaluation on him since my background is in the medical feild. His arm definitly seemed broke & he said while rolling he hit it off a rock. He wasn't wearing elbow pads. My buddy helped him climb the gorge where a car was waiting while myself & another paddler hiked his boat out.
All & all the rescue went very smoothly & everyone communicated well. The injured paddler went to the hospital where an x ray showed he broke his arm. Unfortunate but couldve been worst. The spot he flipped is rather manky & can't help but wonder if some elbow pads may have prevented it. Glad we could be there to help though.
