Paddlesport Safety and Rescue Course Provider

I did the training to become a provider of the British Canoeing Paddlesport Safety and Rescue Course (PSR or PSRC). This course is a new course which replaces the old Foundation Safety and Rescue Course (FSRT). The training was led by Calum Mcnichol at Pinkston. Here’s some notes for my own reference and anyone else who cares.

Remit is to train 8 people over 6 hours for safety and rescue in sheltered water. That means “Ungraded sections of slow moving rivers where the group could paddle upstream against the flow (not involving the shooting of, or playing on, weirs or running rapids).
Areas of open water (e.g. lakes and lochs) where the paddlers are no more than 200 metres offshore and the wind strength does not exceed Beaufort force 3, avoiding the
group being swept/blown out of the safe working area. Slow moving estuaries (less than 0.5 Knots)”.

This is a mixed craft course where a range of crafts should be available (kayaks, SUPs, open Candians, sit on tops etc of various shapes). However the trainees only need to use their preferred boat. So they might all want to use sea kayaks all day long but it should include trying to rescue other craft from the sea kayaks.

There’s no need for throwbags in this course. No mention of shout-reach-throw stuff. The use of the word “victim” has been replaced with “casualty” for self-team-casualty-equipment.

Point the trainees to the PDFs on British Canoeing Awarding Body website first and the videos on YouTube. Hopefully they will get ideas of what’s involved first which means less direct instruction and more improving their skills.

In the old UKCC coach syllabuses they always emphasises that demos should be given silently. This is nonsense and can be ignored but still be careful what language you’re using during the demos.

Get them to reflect after the course. Possibly not under pressure (he isn’t a fan of e.g. asking for top three learning points from each person).

Providers need an authentication before the event.

I ran a session on unconscious paddler rescues and I ran it in reverse, talking about what to do with unconscious paddler on the land, how to get them out the boat and finally how to get the kayak upright. I could also include how to get them on a SUP to float to the side and I suppose how to swim with an unconscious paddler. I discussed differences if they suspect a spinal injury and if they are not breathing.