>>2238109Whitewater SAR.
Wasn’t particularly difficult in a logistics or physical sense.
Typically grade 4 rivers. Paddle down until you find people or equipment. If they’d left gear on side of river, leave a note and a bit of gear for them in case they returned. Call in land SAR. Look nearby. Continue search to takeout.
Unfortunately it never really happened like that for me…
Paddle down river. Find unequipped and/or inexperienced boaters freaking out. Call it in. Extract body, or at least tie it off until more people arrived.
Fly their friends out when heli drops more SAR crew off. Help for a bit, then carry on down river. Recover any gear if possible. Go get pissed because we usually knew them socially. That was the only difficult bit really, dealing with dead friends or acquaintances.
Given we had to get from town to the river and often there was only one heli already searching so had to drive, and they were already overdue or had somehow raised the alarm, it was typically 3-5hrs to site, they were always fine or fucked. One exception where it got dark so search called off. Went to get pub dinner, and found the guy we were searching for at the bar. He’d got fucked off, paddled out and left without telling anyone. Called it in, had a good feed and a bunch of drinks, and left the clown to cover the bill ha ha
He only came back to town once, but everyone had been warned about him so he had nobody to boat with. Never seen again by anyone I know in the river community - that was 10yrs ago : )
