A small group of us attended this year's rescue course: Chris Beauchamp, Steve Frie, Amy Lyon, Kay Lyon, Jerry Schott, Bob Smay, Sherrol Smay, and myself. Gaeton Lord of Montreal joined us for the weekend. Unlike last year's temperatures, the weather this year was nice and warm so that almost no one used a wetsuit. Because most of the attendees had been to last year's session, Kay and Jerry upped the ante and added further challenges to broaden our experience. The first set of lessons was to expose us to the river without the help or hindrance of canoes. Lesson 1: How to cross the river. A throw rope was placed across the river, and as simple as it sounds (you have to experience or observe it to understand the challenge), we had to pull ourselves across the river using it. The catch was the strong flow across the rapids that forced us to hold our breathe as we traversed them. Only a few of the daring were able to make it across on their own using a series of shuffle and breathe movements (way to go Amy!). Jerry enjoyed staying dry on shore while the rest of us moved like drowned rats. Lesson 2: How to ride rapids on your behind. The key to this was to keep your feet up and in front of you, but not let your behind get too deep or you catch the rocks under the rapids with it. Lesson 3: Swimming into an eddy. This was a pretty mild exercise, although we all got very frightened when Chris almost lost his shorts-that would not have been a pretty sight! Lesson 4: Strainers. This gave us experience with how to approach unavailable strainers when boatless. Using a simulated strainer, we got to feel the impact of the right and wrong ways of getting over strainers (swim aggressively toward it (feet behind you) and propel yourself up and over it). Lesson 5: Bracing. Other than a wet exercise, this was one of the more mild ones. The rest of the time we were on the river rescuing and / or being rescued. I think it's safe to say that all of us (except for maybe Jerry and Gaeton) dumped our boats at least once. Amy and I are even as far as rescuing each other well, actually no, since I somehow managed to dump her out of her boat while she was rescuing me from a long boat-free swim. A word of warning-don't let Steve carry something for you :) He is getting a reputation for losing gear on his trips. He lost one of his booties during our first swim across the river, and the weekend before he beat up his helmet (while on his head) and lost the visor to it. He and Bob paddled together on the second day, and I only saw them fall out of the boat a few times. Not bad since they haven't paddled together before. Once again, Kay and Jerry did a terrific job of putting together this rescue class! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for more white water skills.