Swift Water Rescue Incident Report
Section 3-Chattooga River, SC
Fall 2004


Trip Report: Pin, Bull Sluice, Chattooga River, SC
By Kayaker X

I was paddling a Wave Sport Transformer-2 play boat during October 2004 at Bull Sluice when I ran the double drop but was too high when I went over the drop. I back endered in the drop but rather than the usual wash through, I was pushed into Decapitation Rock and flipped under it upstream.

After several attempts to roll I realized I was jammed in the rocks under/upstream of Decap so I bailed out. Nothing happened so I had to push my boat off of me and then I had to pull myself from the rocks into the main current. Great, free at last I thought but then found myself under water in complete darkness being recirculating against a rock wall. After several cycles I found a rock I could grab and pulled and pushed myself down and out into the current.

The river was at 1.6. That first sight of daylight was great! My partner said my boat was jammed upstream of Decap and was visible the entire time. I was under a total of maybe 30 to 45 seconds but it seemed to go in slow motion as I knew I couldn't just wait for the situation to improve on it own. The hardest part was expecting to be free only to find myself recirculating under Decap and having to stay calm and take action to get out.