This years Whitewater Rescue Race will take place on the slalom section of the Salza river in Wildalpen, Austria over the weekend 19. - 20.04.2014.
The event is open to all swiftwater rescue teams, river guides and paddlers with rescue training.
The event is organized by Gaspar Goncz head of the Guide Training & Education Committee for the IRF, with the help of Bernard Ochaya, Neil Newton Taylor & Tamas Vrana.
There are 2 different events to compete in.
- the individual race
- the 3 man team competition
The courses for the individual and team races are a mix of basic river running and whitewater rescue skills that every guide and kayaker should know. The courses are designed as a real challenge even for experienced river guides, but safe enough so that even normal mortals can take part.
In last year's event the individual race tested each river guide with swimming across the river to rescue an inflatable canoe and swimmer in distress, then a precise throwbag throw followed with a raft re-flip and rescue of 2 dummies. Towards the end of the course was also a pined kayaker to assist and the rest of the slalom course to paddle down before getting yourself and your equipment back to the start and showing the judges that you can still tie a figure of eight knot!
Despite warm weather the cold water of the Salza River was one of the factors that competitors said made the race so hard, robbing them of energy before they were halfway through the course. This is one of the most important things to realize when working or playing on rivers with a cold water tempurature.
In the team event three guides had several tasks to solve right from the word go! No less than four victims had to be rescued and all equipment to be used had to be recovered from the river first. Re-flipping rafts, freeing pined kayaks and the right handling of a patient with a unstable neck fracture were all included just to keep things interesting alongside the normal swimming and throwbagging that ended up being done.
If you are interesed in participating at this years event then you can register here:
info@swiftwaterrescue.at