The Rough Water rescue course is designed to develop a paddlers ability to rescue themselves as well as other paddlers in conditions where capsizes will in reality occur and where rescues need to be both quick and effective.

Often, coaches will talk about basic rescues, intermediate rescues, and advanced rescues. The truth is, there is no such thing as an advanced rescue because it is the environment that changes, not the rescue.

All of the sea kayak rescues should be taught at the earliest opportunity in a sea kayaker’s career, and they should not then be learning how to do these functions differently as conditions change.

In rough water, we do however, have to create a variety of personal strategies to deal with what we term as being a ‘Combat Rescue’.

Combat rescues are rescues which occur in the heat of the moment, when the body is fuelled on adrenaline and ‘Neptune’ is starting to create a bit of mischief. Where a delayed action could create further problems and where, if possible, we ‘trim meat off the bone’, making the basic rescues that we have been taught earlier on in our career, simpler and more effective.