Swiftwater Rescue

We offer 2 core flood and swiftwater courses – Operations & Technician. Our instructors tailor our courses to fit your needs and emphasize your jurisdiction’s focus areas. Looking for something entirely customized to your jurisdiction? We do that as well!

Custom Rescue Training Starts Here

We can, and have, customized hybrid classes for individual departments.
Examples: Lake rescues & patient transfers to boats, low head dam operations, gorge or restricted access water rescue, etc.

Swiftwater / Flood Rescue Operations

River or flood rescues represent the second level of aquatic rescues which is a step above lake, a step below swiftwater, and considerably below whitewater. However, even that gentle stream that you can usually wade through can become a life-threatening force after a sudden downpour. To put things into perspective: Today, firefighters are 400% more likely to drown than to die in a fire. This class is designed to be “shore based” and “boat based”. We teach you the swimming skills you can use to save yourself if you end up in the water unexpectedly. Our two-day Awareness/Operations course covers shore based and tethered boat rescues.

Day One

The day is spent in the classroom covering:

Essential knots and rigging
How to read the river
Patient handling
Water Incident Management
Throw bag techniques including vectoring lines
Up-stream spotters and down-stream safety back-ups
Use of floating hose lines
Whistle commands and hand signals for communications

Day Two

The day is spent on site for hands-on training:

Defensive and offensive survival swimming techniques
Wading drills & Low water crossings
Throw bag rescues
Methods to avoid and confront “strainers” (The number one killer of victims and rescuers who end up being swept down-stream)
Tethered boat rescues
Highline boat rescues & rope rigging systems

Our 16 hour class is NFPA compliant.

Technical Level SWIFTWATER RESCUE

Our 16 hour class is NFPA compliant.

Successful completion of a 1000′ endurance swim is required.

Defensive Swimming Techniques
Offensive Swimming Strategies
Leveraging the power of the current
Throw bag drills to re-enforce skills
Diagonal highlines & rigging systems
Snowfence drills
Tethered rescue swimmer
Zipline patient transfers

A practical skills test completes the 16 hour class at the end of the second day.

Students are required to supply their own PPE.

Pre-requisite: NFPA Operations level certification

Let’s Equip Your Team for Success

Day One

The day is spent in the classroom covering:

Essential knots and rigging
How to read the river
Patient handling
Water Incident Management
Throw bag techniques including vectoring lines
Up-stream spotters and down-stream safety back-ups
Use of floating hose lines
Whistle commands and hand signals for communications

Day Two

The day is spent on site for hands-on training:

Defensive and offensive survival swimming techniques
Wading drills & Low water crossings
Throw bag rescues
Methods to avoid and confront “strainers” (The number one killer of victims and rescuers who end up being swept down-stream)
Tethered boat rescues
Highline boat rescues & rope rigging systems

Our 16 hour class is NFPA compliant.

Technical Level SWIFTWATER RESCUE

Our 16 hour class is NFPA compliant.

Successful completion of a 1000′ endurance swim is required.

Defensive Swimming Techniques
Offensive Swimming Strategies
Leveraging the power of the current
Throw bag drills to re-enforce skills
Diagonal highlines & rigging systems
Snowfence drills
Tethered rescue swimmer
Zipline patient transfers

A practical skills test completes the 16 hour class at the end of the second day.

Students are required to supply their own PPE.

Pre-requisite: NFPA Operations level certification