Life Saving Skills

I have been pondering these last couple days about how it is that our martial arts skills, help us to be able to remain calm in a life threatening situations.  I have no answers, as we do not get out on the mats and spend an hour on these skills.  The skills just somehow happen to grow as we practice our other martial arts skills.  They seem hidden, but not.  It is those hidden skills that helped to save my life this past weekend.

I have been kayaking now for about 3 years, but only on the lakes.  About a month ago, I experienced river kayaking for the first time, but the river was fairly calm.  The second time I experienced it was this past Saturday.  The river was nice and calm. . . . . .in some areas.  In others, we worked our way through class 2, plus 3 rapids.  I had never done that before, and was a bit nervous at first.  My friend David assured me I would be able to do it, and that he would keep a close eye on me.  He even promised my children that he would make sure nothing happened to me.  I like adventures, and refused to shy away from this one, just because I was a bit nervous.

The first 29 km on this stretch of the North Saskatewan river (Nordegg to Rocky), was definitely an adventure.  I   learned how to handle rough rapids, keeping in mind what David told me, "always keep your boat pointed forward into the rapids, never get yourself sideways".  I did this and managed the rapids extremely well, or so David said.  He also taught me how to use the current to spin my boat around and come into the side of the river if I ever had to get off.  This was real cool, and again, I did rather well.  David felt much more confident with my skills, and began to worry for me less.  I too gained confidence in myself.  Some of the rapids were big, and it was exhilarating to go through them and have them rush up over the front of the boat, and me.

Close to the last km of our run, we came across some of the biggest rapids yet.   Bay, one of David's friends, went first, then David.  Then me.  Then Lindsay, another of David's friends.  I got to the top of the rapids as it lifted me up, and was horrified to see what was below me.  They call it Saunders Ledge, and it was hidden from us by the big rapids in front of it.  We had a map, and new that we were getting close to it, but assumed we would be able to see it in the distance, and make our way around it.  We went through it.  It is 2 walls of white water rapids with a large gap, or gulley in between.  The first wall of rapids flow in the direction of the river, the same direction we were going.  The second wall, is serious white water rapids and is flowing against the current, coming towards us.   In other words, the two walls of rapids flow into each other, the second being a lot lower than the first. That way, you drop into it.

So over I go.  The front of my kayak hit the second wall, and the force of the water pushed my front end back into this gulley between the 2 walls.  I knew I was in trouble if I didn't get my boat facing forward again.  I paddled hard on the left side, and almost got pointed forward again when the wall of rapids, again, pushed me into the gully.  I fought it for a few mere seconds when the first wall of rapids pushed my boat on the right side, and over I went.  For the first few seconds, I had no idea if I was still in my boat, or if I was still under the water.  All I remember is seeing a LOT of water, and I was surrounded by it.  Also,everything was a bit fuzzy.  Then I felt the edge of my cockpit, and realized my skirt had come loose and I was outside of the boat.  I grabbed it with my left hand.  As I bobbed up and out of the ledge, I realized that my head was above water, and everything was fuzzy because I didn't have my glasses on.  I quickly rummaged around inside my PFD to see if they had got pushed inside it.  I couldn't find them anywhere.  Even though I did have a leash on them, the strong water must have pushed them up and over my head.   As I began floating down the river in it's 12 km per hour current, I saw behind me that Lindsay was out of his boat as well.  I could see orange in the distance ahead, and knew it had to be David and Bay, but I had no idea what they were doing, or what shape they were in.  I couldn't see.

My boat tipped over, and it was too wide to hang on to, so I managed to flip it back over and again hang onto the edge of the cockpit, all the time, cruising down the river.  I came to a spot where I could suddenly touch the bottom of the river bed.  As hard as it was, using my feet, I pushed with every step to get myself to the edge of the river.  After a couple minutes, I was again over my head, and could not touch.  I remember thinking, "oh great".  So, hanging on to my boat with my left hand, I used my right to paddle my way through the water.  Eventually, I got almost to the edge, when suddenly, there was David, in his boat.  He held out his paddle, and managed to push me the rest of the way to the side of the river.  When I was in the middle of the river I couldn't see if the right side of the river was dirt, cliffs, or trees.  Now that I was there, I could see that it was a steep grassy slope.  I managed to get myself up to a small tree that was sticking out of this grassy slope.  I removed my floating dry sack out of my boat and hauled it up on the slope, along with the spare paddle that was in the back end of my boat, and my "empty" camera case.   This was when I realized I had lost my camera.  It had all my pictures from my trip to Arizona 2 weeks previous on it.  I couldn't believe it!

David pulled up along side me as I was trying to empty the water out of my kayak.  He got me to hold onto his boat, and he jumped out, shouting, "Wow!  This water is freezing."  I thought he was being a bit wimpy, until later when I realized my adrenaline was fooling me into thinking I was warm, even though my severe shivering was uncontrollable.  David showed me how to empty the boat so that the water would fall out the side of the cockpit.  The way I was doing it, the water just sloshed from back to front of the boat.  We got most of the water out, and used the sponge to get even more out.  David put together my spare paddle, and told me to get in my boat,  but I said I wanted to get up the slope and put on dry clothes.  He said "no, we have to get you to the other side of the river with the other guys".  I said that I had lost my glasses and couldn't see.  He said to just keep an eye on him, and he would lead me across.  He did just that.

As I got to the other side, I learned that Bay and Lindsay had both gone into the river, but were OK.  Bay lost his boat, but David managed to retrieve it before he came for me.  David pulled along shore, and me behind him.  He jumped out of his boat and ran to pull mine up.  As I got out, he came to me, pulled me into his arms and said, "I'm so proud of you!  I am so proud of you!"  I replied, "but I lost my camera with all my Arizona pictures on it."  "Honey", he says, "you're alive!  Who cares about the camera".  Bay and Lindsay were concerned but David told them I was OK.  I was thrilled to know that they were OK as well.  I started to look through my dry sack for my dry clothes, when David said, we have to get going.  We only have to get around that bend, and we will be at the end of the run, and up to where the truck was.  So I threw on my fleece, and away we went.  Within 5 minutes we were at the end.  I stripped and got into warm clothes, finally.  I had been in the freezing water up to my neck for about 15 minutes.  I continued to shiver uncontrollably for about 30 minutes, but I was fine.   

We all made it.  We were lucky.  David made it through the ledge without tipping, and so was able to help rescue the rest of us.  He had to work real hard going back and forth against the current, but he did it.   Any one of us could have smashed our head on one of the large rocks in the ledge, or floated downstream into one of the log jams.  A number of things could have gone wrong, but didn't.  I learned after that it can sometimes be impossible to get out of a ledge such as Saunders, because the two currents flowing together hold you in there.   Grabbing the side of my kayak like I did, may have saved my life.  Even though it was completely full of water, it had enough buoyancy to pull me up and out of the ledge. 

As we drove away on our way back to camp, David said to me.  " I want you to recognize and realize that  you learned 2 very important lessons today".  One was a higher level of skill in my kayaking that I attained while making my way through the tough rapids.  The other one was a great respect for the river.  "You must never get over confident, or lose focus" , he said.   I gained this lesson through Saunders Ledge.  "This is a very important lesson", he said, "that you will never forget".  David did not know about the other lesson, or ah hah moment I gained as well.

One of the stories around the campfire and with friends we stopped to visit along the trip home the following day, was about how well I did in this situation.  Everyone was so surprised how calm I remained and how well I took control of the situation as best I could, and did what I needed to do to get myself out of the situation.   They were all very surprised that I didn't panic, and even David told me over and over again, how well I had done, and he even relayed this to my children later on.  I thank my martial arts training for that.  I don't know how we learn it, but we do.  We somehow acquire the ability to remain calm, and handle life threatening situations.  I just don't fully understand how, but I am so grateful for it.  I gained a better understanding of the importance of  practicing and training, and attending our classes.  It isn't only so that we gain those physical skills of techniques and forms, and to get in better physical shape, but perhaps more important are the not-so-noticeable, or additional skills we gain.  The confidence, the rise in self esteem, the respect and loyalty, and yes, the ability to remain calm and handle difficult situations.

I lost a few items to the North Saskatewan River that day;  my glasses, camera, hat, and new paddle.  But as David said, I did walk away with my life.  I have a few bruises on my left arm and left leg, but that's minor.  Maybe to some, this isn't really too big a deal.  For me, it was.  I have never been in a situation where my life was threatened, as I felt it was this day.  But even under that threat, I stayed aware of the possible dangers, and looked ahead to what I needed to do, and I did it.  I DID IT!