River Leadership

I’m a great believer in that leaders are made not born. You don’t have to be the world’s best paddler to take responsibility for others on the river. What you do need is to be able to make good experience-based judgement calls and to adhere to some basic common sense principles. Leadership is something that you can always improve on and you will learn more and more just by spending time on the water, looking after different groups.

CLAP

The BCU have an acronym that they use to teach leadership principles: CLAP – Communication, Line of sight, Avoidance is better than cure and Position of maximum usefulness. I’m going to take a look at these principles, whilst adding some thoughts of my own.

Communication

It makes sense to hold a quick safety brief before getting on the river when leading a group of paddlers who you may or may not have seen before. One of the topics that you should cover in your brief is communication and river signals. River signals have been covered in a separate article which can be found here River Signals and is well worth a read. Make sure that whatever signals you use, they are distinctive from one another.

What if the group uses different signals to yours? Whose signals should you use? If there’s only one of you and four paddlers that you’re leading, it seems logical for you to learn theirs. Adding new signals just before getting on a river is likely to confuse them and most people will resort back to what they know best when under pressure. If there is any doubt as to how the signals work, then practise on dry land. Set up some “eddies” on the ground and have the group walk the imaginary river, passing signals back and forth. Make sure that your group make eye contact when passing the signals and that the recipient copies the action. This shows an understanding.

For example:

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Paddler 1 (Signalling): YOU come to ME
Paddler 2 (Signalling): I go to YOU
Paddler 1: nod/thumbs up/”OK” signal

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It’s simple, but makes sure that the signal was interpreted correctly. Also, make sure that your paddlers understand that no signal means no move. If you’re slowly creeping up to a drop, one eddy at a time to see if it is safe, the last thing you want is for one of your paddlers to break in and float down behind you unaware. They need to stay put until you’ve told them that it is safe to move.

Think beyond hand signals as well. Sometimes paddle signals can be useful, as they can be seen easier from a distance. However, don’t use them as an excuse for losing line of sight. I’ve also seen paddlers getting surfed at the bottom of a drop with their paddle waving around looking very similar to the “OK” signal. Certainly not OK! Make those signals distinctive.

Most of us carry rescue whistles as well, but what do different signals mean? Usually one blast means “stop” or “attention.” You could tailor it for your group to mean “catch an eddy.” 2 blasts usually means “attention upstream” and 3 “attention downstream.” Three repeated blasts however, is universal for emergency and should only ever be used for that.

Line Of Sight

First of all, everybody in you group needs to be in line of sight, so that you can see that they are OK and also to be able to pass signals. That doesn’t mean that you, as the leader have to be able to see everybody. For example when paddling around a bend, you may place a paddler in an eddy to the outside of the bend. If you are at the front, you won’t be able to see the last paddler, because of the bend. But the paddler in that eddy will be able to see you and the last person, keeping the whole group in line of sight. You can also pass any necessary signals though that paddler. If you can’t see from where you are, move. That may mean ferrying across to a different eddy, moving another paddler to a better position to pass signals, or getting out of your boat to signal back upstream.

As a group member on the river you need to get in to the habit of looking out for those around you. As a leader, you are not only looking ahead, checking for dangers, but you should be looking behind you, checking that your group OK. The last but one person in the group also has the job of checking on the last paddler. The person at the back can see everyone else, but people need to look out for them as well!

The second meaning of “line of sight” is being able to see down a rapid. Never commit yourself to something that you can’t see. What is the rapid like? What is coming up after the rapid? Can you see the whole rapid? If you can’t see what is at the bottom of a drop, don’t run it blind. You may find that the “easy” looking ledge drop has a powerful stopper at the bottom, or a tree trunk caught up in it. Move to a position that you can see from and “if in doubt, out and scout.” Also you need to be able to see where you are going to, before you break in to the rapid. Do you have an eddy to catch to get out of the flow? Is there a second one in case you miss it? It happens…

Avoidance is better than cure

Avoidance is better than cure is about pre-empting what may happen and putting in to place measures to either eliminate or manage the risk. This is where the river leader’s experience based judgement comes in to play.

First of all, we know from experience that certain practices have caused problems in the past and so we do our best to avoid repeating them. This is why we don’t clip chest harnesses with snapgate karabiners, or have loops that may get caught on our personal kit. We’re trying to minimise as many risks as we can.

On the river there are many risks and again, we need to consider if we can eliminate them, or do our best to minimise them to a manageable level. Our river running strategies must change to meet the environment that we find ourselves in. When in easy water with good visibility ahead, we can afford to move together, all at once. If the rapids get more technical, or we can’t see as far ahead, then we may opt to start eddy hopping. This slows down the descent, giving us time to see what is up ahead and the option of getting out to scout if we need to. Lastly, no river leader wants to deal with multiple swims at the same time. If the chance of a swim occurring, or the risks resulting from a swim increase, then we need to run rapids one at a time. The rest of the group provide safety, either from the boat, or out on the bank.

There will come a point when we can identify serious risks in a single rapid – siphons, retentive holes, undercuts, strainers and the like. At this level we may decide that we can minimise these risks by putting in place our own safety measures specific to that risk – placing someone with a throwbag for example. Or, maybe we can’t guarantee that we will be able to minimise the risk to acceptable levels and so we decide to walk round a rapid. Avoidance is better than cure, after all.

We need to think about avoidance in during rescues as well, to stop making a problem worse than it already is. This comes back to our rescue principles: Self, Team, Victim. We look after ourselves and our team before the victim, or we run the risk of creating more victims. Also, it’s important to exhaust the possibilities of low-risk rescue options before switching to higher risk ones. If you get hurt performing a needlessly high risk rescue, you are no good to the victim or the rest of your team.

Position Of Maximum Usefulness

Just because you are the leader, it doesn’t mean you always have to be at the front. On easy water you may decide to let one of your group go first, to allow them to make their own decisions and develop their river reading skills (under your supervision of course).

Most of the time, however, when we talk about position of maximum usefulness, we are referring to minimising risks again. If you are expecting a swimmer are you more useful at the back of the group where you will have to go a long way to chase them down, or below the group? How long will it take you to make your way back up a rapid to get to get to someone that is pinned? Do you need to be in your boat for each rapid, or would it actually be more useful in some instances to be out with a throwbag? Each rapid presents it’s own challenges and you need to pre-empt what may happen and use your own judgement to decide on where you would be best placed.

Position of maximum usefulness extends to rescue scenarios as well. If the other members of your group can be relied upon to perform, then do you need to be the one at the sharp end? The group will be looking to you, as the most experienced person and so perhaps you are better off placed on the bank organising a rescue, rather than being the one entering the water.

This may sound like there is a lot to remember, however most of what has been written here is hopefully common sense and the rest will become natural with more time on the water. A good river leader will be able to constantly evaluate risks, whilst looking after the welfare of their group and enjoying their own time on the river.

River Leadership