Portland, Maine, July 21, 2009 – “Rivers this summer are different than in many previous years,” states Brad Rounds, the Health and Safety Director for the American Red Cross of Southern Maine and who has many years of canoeing, kayaking, and water safety experience.  He is also a Maine Master Recreational Guide.

Lack of knowledge about river conditions and potential risks can lead even strong swimmers into trouble.  Rounds states, “there are many parts to that puzzle. Rivers are often used to bleed upstream lake water to maintain summer recreational levels.  Since just after Memorial Day we’ve pretty much gone from being 3” under rainfall for the year to being 6” over.  All that rain and less sun also causes the water to be colder.”  He continues, “I’ve even had summer youth camps tell me that the lake-water temperature in their swimming areas has actually dropped 13-14 degrees in the past three weeks or so.”

Even in Maine you don’t expect inland waters this cold in July.  Sudden immersion in cold water causes several things to happen, everything from an involuntary gasp reflex, to generalized loss of body temperature, and failure of the arms and legs to function effectively.  “Experts will say that most people drown in colder water, they don’t die of hypothermia.  Rather, it is from the gasp reflex and inability to use their arms and legs - which can happen quite quickly, especially in moving water.”  He continues, “The result is the same so the difference is pretty academic if you ask me.” 

Here are several issues that rivers present to swimmers - or to boaters that find themselves out of their craft - or for that matter, to waders.  “Yes,” says Rounds, “wading is notoriously harder to do in a current; most folks don’t have a lot of unaided success in above-the-knee situations in current.   The solution for many people is to limit wadding in any current to situations to below-the-knee, at the most.”  He adds “just like boating, waders need to view every situation in terms of “what if I had to swim this?”

• Not being aware of conditions downstream, as in intentionally going in the water in a location immediately above dangerous locations such as rapids or dams of any size is also a factor.  Maine also has many “low-head” dams, dams where the water pours over the 2-5 foot facing.  They can be lethal if you find yourself in the downstream flow of the pour-over.  According to Rounds, “these dams are called “drowning machines” for a reason.   The more force of water, the stronger the reversal (or hydraulic) that forms at the base of the dam. It is a consistent river-wide feature with no breaks, so the hydraulic also runs river-wide.  With retainer walls often at the edges, there is often no way to get out.” Rounds sticks out his two index fingers and turns them rapidly around each other.  “It’s like a washing machine action.  The water pulls you under, pops you up, pulls you under again - and while down there you get intimately acquainted with tree trunks and anything else that might be caught there.”

• Being aware of your physical and mental condition today.  One very obvious, and all too frequent, condition is the use of alcohol - notorious for messing both physical and decision-making up quickly. Even without alcohol, misjudging either your physical or mental readiness can lead to over-estimation of ability. The only remedy here is a very        realistic self-appraisal and listening to others with you that try to warn you. 

• Our rivers in Southern Maine are unusually high for this time of year.  “In fact” states Rounds, “The Saco was higher last week than it was the first week of May, when you typically think of snow-melt feeding it from the mountains”. Greater volume means moving more water and moving it faster.  In the same way, it is also colder than is typical for this time of year. A very easy indicator of potential trouble is when you see live trees that should be on the bank actually standing in the water as you are looking up or downstream from the bank.  All that extra water contributes greatly to soil run off into the water.  That adds to the turbidity of the water. Rounds cautions, “you can’t see rocks near the surface or other objects floating just below the surface; but they may find you.  It’s one thing for it to be murky in still water, quite another in moving water.”
• Maine rivers with rapids or “quick-water” are essentially rock gardens. Rocks and heads don’t mix well; neither do rocks and backs - or feet - yes feet.  Rounds explains, “the natural tendency to try to get your feet underneath you can be lethal in moving water.  Your body has forward momentum and if one or more of those rocks snags a foot, the water will easily bend you forward and hold your body against the river bottom down-stream.” The rule of thumb when caught in a river current is to point your feet downstream and keep them at the surface (much harder to do without a life-jacket by the way) and then, when clear enough to do so, to get to shore.  “If something has to hit a downstream rock, it’s better if it’s your feet instead of your head,” Rounds adds.

Currents can also cause “pinning” of swimmers (and boats) – where there is a “strainer” – something like a tree down across the water, where the water can flow pretty much unimpeded through but a boat or person would be held against the upstream side of the object ( much like a pasta strainer which lets the water through but not the spaghetti,). Stay clear of the upstream side of anything where water passes and people can’t.

Why is it so different for swimmers compared to kayakers or canoeists? Rounds explains “Yes, the water moves downstream as a whole but there are “stoppers” or “holes” much like the low-head dam, there are places where the water swirls back upstream, there are side currents, and there are differences in speed of the water-column from the bottom to the surface.”  He concludes, “A skilled boater on the water uses the currents, a swimmer is much more at the mercy of the currents.  One reason for that is a boat rides mostly the top layer of current.”

More and more children and younger adults have learned to swim in a pool. Their outdoor ventures have pretty much been limited to lakes or swimming beaches, many with lifeguard protection.  That makes for people that just don’t understand ocean rip currents or rivers. Rounds ponders, “there is a training video, old like me, Water The Deceptive Power. There are two quotes from that video that are appropriate here.  First, “water is damned hard to breathe” - seems obvious maybe, but the first error in judgment frequently is forgetting to respect the fact that water is not our native element. Mistakes in the water can easily be fatal.  Second, “there is no power of water so deceptive…and unpredictable as a river.” 

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