River Safety
Equipment
Safety starts with the equipment you bring with you. A life jacket (personal flotation device or PFD) and helmet are essential on white water. Clothing is also vital to safety. Make sure you bring the proper clothing and check weather forecasts for temperature as well as extremes of wind and rain. You should always carry more clothing than you think necessary if you don’t know the descent because on open, fast-moving water you can go into hypothermia even in an air temperature of 60 degrees. If you white water regularly, you may find it wise to invest in a wetsuit or drysuit. Pack a water tight first-aid kit where you can reach it easily in the raft.
Conduct
Never raft or paddle alone. Always take somebody with you, even if they just intend to wait at your put-out point to make sure you're safe. Don't drink alcohol before or during water activities, save your drinks for when you’ve set up camp at the end of the day, or got home after your white water runs.
Getting wet and going under
Don’t panic. Keep your head as high out of the water as you can to see anything coming your way in the river. Point your feet down stream so if you hit anything, you're feet will touch it first; this means can push yourself away from obstacles. Move towards the nearest bank.
Hypothermia
The cold water can draw the heat out of your body, through a process called conduction and you need to be aware that you don’t have to fall in the river for this to happen – situations that contain risk include water sports taking place in mist or extreme chill or where you have been heavily splashed and you have large areas of exposed skin. Signs of hypothermia include blue lips, uncontrollable shivering, fatigue, irritability, and lack of coordination. Get off the water, put on layers of dry clothes, move gently to warm your major muscles. If you warm your blood too fast, the blood could still be acidic when it returns to the heart, and cause cardiac problems.
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