Swimming in Holes
By Teresa Gryder
[Editor’s Note: This is the third and last part of our series about holes. Part 1 was about hole morphology, and how to tell a bad hole from a fun one. Part 2 was about side surfing and paddling out of holes. This, Part 3, is about swimming in, and rescuing people from, holes. It is also partly a warning about the danger involved in rescues, because unfortunately rescue isn’t always possible.]
Part 3: Swimming in Holes and Rescuing Swimmers
Sometimes you learn something from reading that comes in handy. I’m reminded of this from the time I got stuck in a really bad hole. I never should have gone near it, but I was overconfident and underskilled and I got stopped in a low head dam.
We were on the Pigeon River along I-40 in Tennessee, after having successfully navigated a tributary called Jonathan Creek. The water was high. We knew there was a dam down there, and that it was broken and runnable on the left. I didn’t scout, and I didn’t go far enough left. In short, I was a fool.
I’ve read (and re-read) all of William Nealy’s cartoon books about river running. In one of them he portrayed a kayaker standing up in their kayak and diving out of a bad hole. When I was in that bad hole on the Pigeon, I remembered Nealy’s cartoon. I popped my skirt, stood up in my cockpit and dove downstream. I cleared the hole. My boat had no floatation in it (more foolishness) and it came right out. I was grateful to escape so easily.
Options When You are Out of Your Boat
Our bodies are mostly water, and our buoyancy is close to neutral. This is good when it comes to escaping from holes, because if we go deep with the water we are likely to come out of most holes. Even expert boaters will sometimes wet exit when they can’t paddle out of a hole. Sometimes there is no other way out. There’s no point in surfing to exhaustion if the hole has no exit. Boats full of floatation get stuck in holes more than humans, so letting go of your boat might help you get out. You may be able to hang on to your paddle.
The fact that the deep flow goes out of a hole can direct our strategy. Instinctively we fight to stay up, and away from that seam that pushes us down. We like our oxygen. But the way out is down. Rather than trying to stay on the surface, a swimmer in a hole will want to plunge into the strong current that is falling into the hole, and ride it to the bottom of the river and hopefully out.
This is flat out terrifying. Nobody wants to do it. We try everything else first. We swim downstream, go for the edges, or just float and wait for it to spit us out. Most holes aren’t that retentive, and we get ejected instead of recirculated. It takes being in a hole for a while and realizing that you aren’t coming out any other way before you develop the determination to go deep.
If you are the one stuck in a hole, get air whenever you have a chance. Relax as much as you can to conserve oxygen. Whenever you come to the surface, get air and look around. Where are you? Is there downstream current nearby? Is a rope floating in the water close by? Is there a rock you could climb up on? Is there a boat that you could grab? Figure out the answer to these questions, and save swimming effort for the right moment.
When the hole pulls you toward the seam, try to get a breath before it dunks you. When it is dunking you, ball up. Pull your arms and legs in close to your torso so that no limbs are sticking out to catch on things. Expect to hit the bottom of the river. As long as you are moving, the bottom is a fine place to be. Don’t push or swim back up to the surface, because that will keep you in the hole. Bump along the bottom with the current. Be patient. Wait.
The moment that you pop back up after a long time underwater is a prime moment to take action. You are likely to come up at the boil line. In a bad hole you still could get sucked back into the hole, even after a long deep plunge. Act fast when you come to the surface. If you take ONE strong stroke in the right direction at that moment, it can make the difference. If you still have your paddle, USE IT. ou might be able to plant a blade in fast water and pull yourself out. ou might be able to reach a passing boat with your hand or a T-grip. If you have a kayak paddle, paddle forward and drag yourself out.
Likewise if your boat is still in the hole, use it. Improvise. Use it to keep your head above water long enough to catch your breath. You might be able to shove it in and yourself out. You might be able to angle it into water moving downstream, and get it to pull you out.
If you have a rope on your person, consider throwing a rope out of the hole. You don’t want to end up tangled, but you might provide a way that someone could drag you out. A throwbag dangling in the current can sometimes be snagged by another throwbag thrown across it, or grabbed by a boater.
The main message here is that if you’re going round and round in a bad hole, you are your own best ally. Yes, you would love to be rescued, but you may be able get yourself out faster than any rescuer, and time matters. If someone throws you a rope and barely misses, swim for it. Use whatever tools are available.
You will sometimes hear that you should remove your life jacket to get out of a bad hole. You’d need to be desperate to try this, because it is dangerous in other ways. In a life or death situation like getting caught in a low head hydraulic, reducing your floatation might get you out. My hope is that you will never find yourself in a situation that requires such a dangerous choice, but you can at least file it as a faint possibility.
Not in the Hole? Do Something!
As for the rest of you who are not in the hole: do something! There are lots of options. Get as close as you can and use reach-extenders. Don’t get sucked in there yourself, unless you’re set up with a rescue PFD and a solid belay team. With a large group of paddlers, several rescue strategies can be executed at the same time.
If you’re throwing a rope, try to hit them in the helmet. They will notice that. Once they’ve grabbed the rope, pull with steady pressure toward the side of the hole. Pulling them downstream, or jerking the rope, are less likely to work. Once they’re out of the hole it becomes a regular river rescue.
If the bad hole is a long way from shore, but a good thrower can throw that far, recruit the best throwers in your group and keep handing them stuffed throwbags until they hit the swimmer. Throwing from a raft or a mid-river eddy or rock are great options when the shores are far from the hole.
If you are not involved in throwing ropes or packing throwbags, you can set safety downstream so that when the swimmer or a rescuer flushes down, they are rescued immediately. Another role to consider is walking upstream to communicate with boaters coming downstream. From upstream you might devise a rescue using a boat moving through the rapid. Rafts make great rescue platforms for roping or using a T-grip to hook a person out of a hole.
If the swimmer passes out and is still in there, the only remaining option is the live bait rescue. This is not the first thing we try because of the risk to the rescuer. Send a strong swimmer on a long tether into the hole (or other trap) to grab the unconscious person, and then a team on shore pulls them both in. The volunteer should wear a type 5 rescue jacket with a quick release so they can escape from the rope if they need to.
There are lots of other possible rescue ideas, but they are less commonly used. One is for a boat to lurk just behind the boil line, waiting for the swimmer to come up. When they surface near the boil line you grab them and drag them out. The problem is, it’s really easy to get sucked in with them. Many fire department first responders have drowned in low head dams trying to do boat rescues. Non-expert paddlers should not attempt this strategy. rescuer turned victim is worse than no rescuer at all.
As long as they are conscious, it’s better to throw a rope. You can throw from a boat, especially from a raft. You could carry a boat back upstream and land the rope on them as you float past the hole. It’s trickier in a small boat but it is possible to pull without flipping over by turning your boat broadside to the current and leaning downstream. Tuck your paddle in an armpit or the bow of the canoe. If you fail to keep it upright and end up swimming, you can still pull them out of the hole by holding onto the rope while you swim in the current.
Sometimes there’s no way to get to the person stuck in a hole. If you can’t do anything, you can’t do anything. Your role may be to hike out and call 911. Hopefully the rescuers that show up will have better tools than you.
Prevention is much easier than rescue
Always keep the awareness that river features change with different flows. The worst holes usually form at high water. Any ledge or large boulder could form a big hole with enough water added. Prevention is much easier than rescue.
When there is an emergency on the river, your first job is to take care of yourself. If you want to help and don’t know what to do, ask someone, set safety above or below, or provide support and backup to the people who are acting. Bring your rope.
The video links below illustrate situations when people or boats have been stuck in bad holes. You may think of rescue actions that could have been taken but were not. If you watch them all, you will see actions taken that resulted in rescuers dying. If nothing else, I hope that this helps you to be aware of the need to recognize and avoid dangerous holes. If you or someone you care about ends up in a hole, may you have many options and use them wisely.
VIDEO LINKS ABOUT HOLES AND RESCUES
(Learn from other’s mistakes.)
2015 NEAR MISS ON THE BIG SOUTH FORK IN TENNESSEE
Rescuer’s Point of View: http://youtu.be/Rl-LjPG7ltc
Swimmer’s Point of View: http://youtu.be/aDDgOnDuDAE
HYDROLOGIST’S POINT OF VIEW ON LOW HEAD DAMS
About hydraulic jumps and engineering to reduce the hazard of low head dams.
1975 FLOOD STAGE LOW HEAD DAM RESCUE GONE VERY BAD
This is probably the worst low head dam hole you will ever see. This video is still used to train swiftwater rescue personnel about dams, in spite of its low resolution. What you are not told is that rescuers motored into this keeper to retrieve a body and several rescuers died. When a rescue turns into a body recovery, your risk tolerance should adjust accordingly. At 2:10-2:40 the first boat is crossing the boil line, wrecking at 3:00. At 8:15 the crane arrives, and at 10:00 it is being brought into position but not successfully deployed. At 14:30 the second boat goes in and at 15:05 it capsizes. Later a life is saved by throwing a rope from the crane. What they really needed was a helicopter.
RAFT STUCK IN POUROVER IN TAPPAN FALLS, MIDDLE FORK SALMON
I recommend turning off the sound. The surf starts at 1:40 and at 2:15 someone attempts to toss a rope as they float by. It appears that the rope was poorly packed. At 8:20 someone makes a throw attempt from the right bank and narrowly misses. At 9:38 the raft finally flips and the swimmers come right out. This is a situation in which I might have dove off the raft instead of waiting for it to flip.