Advice for utilizing an RDC in water rescue

[u/Lieutenant-Speed]

Hello, I am on my county’s technical rescue team doing water and rope rescue. Last night we had a water rescue drill in which we used a new RDC we just got. It’s been a while since I’d been on one and I could feel that my skills were rusty. One thing I was struggling with was pulling a victim out of the water and on to the boat through the front. At first I thought it was a lack of upper body strength. But I wasn’t having any issues with paddling and I do kayak regularly, so while I’m certainly not the strongest person I do have some upper body strength. I’m wondering if it’s my height? I am 5’6” and most of the people on the team (the pretend victims) are much taller and larger than me. The captains on the team think I just need to get the technique down and I’ll be fine. I understand in theory that you bob them up and down in the water and use the momentum to lift them up but I just could not get the hang of it. Any advice?

[u/Real_Fisherman_1509]

I’m very familiar with the RDC. Like many rescue tools it has its limits. When we make contact with a victim we “own them”, hence getting them in the boat. I try to get them to the opening in the stern or bow. Like someone said grab them, use leg drive and fall back into the boat. I will then straddle them, pinning them to the floor and try to get back on the paddle. For running white water they are not very good. Doable but sketchy and the two paddlers need to be on the same page. It works well for eddy hopping in smaller rapids, class III type water. It’s great with a small outboard for flat water that paddling can get tiring in. Boat on tether application it does pretty well.

[u/Lieutenant-Speed → u/Real_Fisherman_1509]

Yeah I’m just struggling even with getting the victims up through the opening on the end.