You can never have too many PR1 capsize drills (or insights into them). A PR1 capsize is the most hazardous event in the sport of rowing and the most complicated to mitigate. We held our latest Marlow PR1 capsize drill which all also served as a PR1 Rescue training session. Per Marlow RC’s safety protocol, any PR1 rower must be accompanied by a safety launch and a separate rescuer trained in PR1 rescue. I have posted a number of pieces about PR1 capsizing, but the more you do it, the more you learn:
- WEAR SHOES IN DRILL – Any drill should be designed to replicate IRL conditions as closely as possible. Many times this adds extra work for the drill, but with this tip, it actually makes the drill easier to execute the “righting” approach to PR1 rescue because the shoe soles will slip less on the near side rigger that you step on to provide the righting leverage.
- HOLD OPPOSITE RIGGER AS FAR OUT AS POSSIBLE – On the other side of the boat for righting leverage, when trainee PR1 rescuers first try the technique, they tend to grab either the opposite side gunnel or the rigger near it. In order to get maximum leverage for the righting process, one really needs to reach out as far along the rigger close to oarlock as possible (the video shows one of the PR1 trainee rescuers first reaching the near side of the far rigger and having difficulty, despite being quite strong, until he adjusts his reach further out along the far rigger.
- BRING A NOSE-CLIP FOR TEST SUBJECTS – PR1 rescue training requires a subject to be strapped into a PR1 boat and dunked with a capsize multiple times. But inverting, the natural inclination is for water to go up one’s nose often uncomfortably. It is a handy idea to bring along a swimmer’s nose clip to keep this from happening. Oly use the clip for training subjects and not for PR1’s doing their capsize drill as the drill should be as close to real life conditions as possible.
We had the good fortune of Jason Clarke along who is not only the husband of Paralympic Champion Naomi Riches and one of the Marlow RC’s safety launch volunteers, but it also a professional photographer, and he provided full above and under water video of the PR1 capsize drill for the first time.