Strainer Question

[riverman]

On Jul 20, 4:11*pm, Steve Cramer <cramer...@charter.net> wrote:
> Always head first, swimming as hard as you can and climbing up into the
> branches as far as you can. If you come up to the strainer and just grab
> it, you'll end up face-up underneath. Get your hips out of the water.
>
> For a rock, feet first is better.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> Robert11 wrote:
> > If going into an unavoidable "Strainer," what is the generally accepted
> > procedure: head first, or feet first ?
> > I know every situation is different, but was wondering what the standard
> > practice is.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

And if you hit a strainer feet first, your feet will stop and you'll
get sucked under and get tangled. Be agressive and FIGHT to get out of
the water. Get on your belly, swim into it, reach deep into that
sucker and grab hold...your life is in very serious danger.

Here's a more intriguing question: if you are getting swept into a
strainer while in your boat (kayak or canoe), what do you do? Toss
your paddle and grab for the branches, get sideways and high brace
into it, stay straight and try to torpedo deep into the strainer and
hold on, bail and grab for branches, or what?

--riverman

[Micheal Artindale]

> Hello,
>
> Newbie question, please:
>
> If going into an unavoidable "Strainer," what is the generally accepted
> procedure:
>
> head first, or feet first ?
>
> I know every situation is different, but was wondering what the standard
> practice is.
>
> Thanks,
> B.
>

What is a strainer?

Micheal

[riverman]

On Jul 24, 11:23*pm, "Micheal Artindale"
<michealartind...@eastlink.ca> wrote:
> "Robert11" <rgs...@notme.com> wrote in message
>
> news:AJWdnbW2yub50h_VnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@************. ..
>
> > Hello,
>
> > Newbie question, please:
>
> > If going into an unavoidable "Strainer," what is the generally accepted
> > procedure:
>
> > head first, or feet first ?
>
> > I know every situation is different, but was wondering what the standard
> > practice is.
>
> > Thanks,
> > B.
>
> What is a strainer?
>
> Micheal

Now THERE is a newbie question. :-)

A 'strainer' is an obstacle (usually a tree) that is laying in the
current such that the water moves through it, but an object (such as a
boater or boat) will get entangled, but not be washed through it. It
is similar to a 'sweeper', which is a tree or other object overhanging
a river in such a manner that your boat will go under it, but you will
get knocked over ('swept') and fall into the water. Often trees are
laying in the water in such a way that a big branch upstream is acting
as a sweeper, and the body of the tree is a strainer, so you get
knocked out of your boat by the branch, then washed into the strainer.

Strainers, along with low-head dams, are the most dangerous and life-
threatening things on rivers. They are often like icebergs, with more
beneath the water than you realize. Always give downed trees and
branches a WIDE berth.

--riverman

[John Kuthe]

On Jul 24, 10:23*pm, "Micheal Artindale"
<michealartind...@eastlink.ca> wrote:
> "Robert11" <rgs...@notme.com> wrote in message
>
> news:AJWdnbW2yub50h_VnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@************. ..
>
> > Hello,
>
> > Newbie question, please:
>
> > If going into an unavoidable "Strainer," what is the generally accepted
> > procedure:
>
> > head first, or feet first ?
>
> > I know every situation is different, but was wondering what the standard
> > practice is.
>
> > Thanks,
> > B.
>
> What is a strainer?
>
> Micheal

Any place the water flows through and you can't.

Hence the term "strainer". It strains you out of the water.

[cramersec]

On Jul 24, 10:29 pm, riverman <myronb...**********m> wrote:
> Here's a more intriguing question: if you are getting swept into a
> strainer while in your boat (kayak or canoe), what do you do? Toss
> your paddle and grab for the branches, get sideways and high brace
> into it, stay straight and try to torpedo deep into the strainer and
> hold on, bail and grab for branches, or what?

Never had to do it, but I think my approach would be the sideways
brace into it, then jump as high as I could into the branches. The
torpedo approach might work, but if you rode up over the log, your
stern might dip down and backender you. I recall a local woman who
pinned a C-1 doing that.

Steve

[riverman]

On Jul 28, 4:57*pm, "cramer...@**********" <cramer...@**********> wrote:
> On Jul 24, 10:29 pm, riverman <myronb...**********m> wrote:
>
> > Here's a more intriguing question: if you are getting swept into a
> > strainer while in your boat (kayak or canoe), what do you do? Toss
> > your paddle and grab for the branches, get sideways and high brace
> > into it, stay straight and try to torpedo deep into the strainer and
> > hold on, bail and grab for branches, or what?
>
> Never had to do it, but I think my approach would be the sideways
> brace into it, then jump as high as I could into the branches. The
> torpedo approach might work, but if you rode up over the log, your
> stern might dip down and backender you. I recall a local woman who
> pinned a C-1 doing that.
>
> Steve

I guess a lot would depend on the shape of the strainer. If it were a
tree, with lots of branches above the water, I might torpedo into it
and try to grab something more solid nearer the central trunk. In
fact, I seem to remember having done something like that several times
on smaller rivers, while in my canoe. These were pine trees with just
bare branches, not some fresh downfall with thick leaves.

If the strainer was basically just a big trunk overhanging the river
with most, or all, of the above-water branches stripped off, I'd
probably go into it sideways and brace. Probably even get both my
hands on the trunk, at the expense of losing my paddle, and get out of
my canoe onto the tree trunk as quickly as possible.

--riverman