I’ve been rather lazy on the blogging front over the last while up until I saw this thread over on the UK boating site UKRGB. It starts of pretty simple looking to identify a type Prussik knot and as all online forums seem to splits into a couple of different directions with all sorts of information / miss information popping up.

There were a couple of things which I found interesting. Firstly it confirmed to me that boaters and ropes / rope work are strange bedfellows. There seems to be an assumption in the wider paddling community that if someone can paddle ( X ) grade river they are automatically totally up to speed with the rope stuff.

Secondly and the thing that struck my interest is that kayakers seem to have an aversion against using out of the ordinary such as “mechanical devices” or tools which might make things easier.

I have constantly heard people preach the K.I.S.S . principal but I wonder have some of these folks closed their minds to their own detriment, are we missing out on using the right tools for the job?

I thought I would share a bit of kit I have been using for a few years now and I honestly think its a savage tool that can complement almost any WW kayakers tool kit.

Its called a Robot and manufactured by an Italian company called Kong.

“KONG ROBOT DESCENDER: A versatile piece of gear in the vertical world. Some of its many uses include a belay device, rappel device, ascender, in place of a pulley in a z-drag system and the list goes on. It can accommodate ropes between 5-13mm in diameter in a single or double configuration. It even works great with ropes of different diameters”

These are usually used by mountain guides and cliff rescue teams in the Alpine regions but due to the fact it is so versatile it has quickly become an invaluable part of my paddling kit .

The specs stack up like this:

Material: aluminium alloy

Weight: 158 g

Dimensions: 52 x 148 mm

Max Load: 22 kN

Rope diameter: 5-13 mm

It weights in about the same weight as a standard steel crab or about twice the weight as an alloy carabineer. Size wise its not much bigger than a large paddling wire gate crab and fits nicely into the pocket of my PFD.

So now we know that its nice and compact just what kind of practical applications does it have to us in a white water environment?

Kayakers seem to be obsessed with Z-Drags and all sorts of mechanical advantage set ups and this little tool makes those easy set up and extremely effective in their operation. The device works as both an auto locking calming pulley all in one.

Once you are set up like this you can operate it just as an auto locking 1:1 system or using a prussik and another crab and have an auto locking 2:1 system.

The use of the Robot for this kind of set up just makes it very easy especially when there are only a small number in your group as the auto locking function allows you to take breaks during each pull without loosing tension. It can be set up to use just as a “pulley” to reduce friction without engaging the auto locking if you so wish. For the demo there I didn’t add a pulley on the prussik end just to keep it gear light.

I would carry the Robot for that function alone but another great thing it does is works as a rappelling device, so if you ever have to portage a cliff or lower yourself down to a get your sorted there to.

All you have to do is make a sit harness with your sling / tape and your away, I also make use of the Spectra belay loop that comes on Astral WW PFD’s to make things even safer.

That’s just one way of using it as an abseil device there are a few more combinations depending on what dia of ropes you are using etc.

One of the great things is just how well it handles double ropes so that you can lower down a drop on a looped rope. You can even use ropes of different dia without any issues.

With the addition of a sling the Robot can also be used as an ascender in much the same way as you would set it for a 2:1 z-drag.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg as to what this device is capable of and with a little bit of learning and practice you will no doubt find endless more applications for it.

So the Robot covers a tasks that you would normally have to use a hand full of others.

In summing up I would say that we as white water paddlers should open our minds to learning and understanding new & possible more efficient ways of doing things rather than just accepting everything that is said to be “best practice” and taking it as gospel.

Needless to say I’m only covering some of the uses of Kong Robot, no amount of reading stuff of the net will make up of hands on experience or being showing by a quality / experienced coach. If you have any questions or comments on what you might like me to cover in the future fire away.

Adrian

So a couple of weeks ago I made what could only be described a an armature mistake when out paddling, just before the get one of our group ask if they could borrow my river knife to cut some foam. So I took it out of my pocket and unclipped the lanyard it was attached to, they when I got it back I just stuffed it into my PFD pocket and was on my way. Fast forward a short while later I jumped out on the bank to set up some rescue, and when taking a sling out of my PFD pocket my knife flew out in what seemed like a comedy slow motion and straight into the river, where it now resides permanently.

The knife I had I was pretty fond of I had bought it while working in France a few years back, I had a spare Peak UK river knife but I just never liked it! So I dropped into the folks at i-canoe to check out what they had in stock and catch up with the lads. They stock NRS kit which I have always thought was well designed & put together right. The first choice was do I go for a sheath knife or a folding type which I have always favoured.

The 3 models to choose from were the Wingman / Pilot / Co-pilot, I whipped them all out of their boxes and took some photos to help you get a better idea of their scale.

The Co-Pilot is by far the nicest of any of the sheath knives that I have come across, its compact but just the right size while never feeling bulky. If you are the like the Idea of having a knife on the outside of your PFD this is the bit of kit for you, the sheath clips perfectly into lash tabs that are on most rescue vests.

I have to say I was very tempted by the Co-Pilot but in the end I decided to to stick with the folding style that I’m used to. The Wingman is a super bit of design, it is super compact so that it will fit nicely into your PFD pocket but when its open its just the right size to do the job when you most need it.

There was one only one improvement that could be do to make this knife better, its not the easiest to open with one hand should you ever need to do that.  I’ve resolved this with a little bit of tape and 5 minutes, check out the picture below.The bit of tape also allows you to open the knife with you teeth if you are really under pressure. Just a note for the left handers out there, the belt clip on the knife can be whipped off and changed over to the other side with relative ease to make it more ergonomically for the left hookers.

Last but by no means least in the line up is the Pilot knife. Its a full size knife which comes in just over 7 inches long, I reckon its a bit long for kayaking use but for rescue professionals / divers / sailors this is a serious but of kit for you. The construction is super solid and due to its one piece design I could never imagine you breaking this knife.

I think that what river knife paddlers carry with them when out boating is the one piece of kit that never get much thought, the thinks to look out for when you are looking for a knife should include.

• Blade, is it serrated or smooth or a combination of both, the combined is best as have the best of both worlds.
• Knife tip, is it blunt or pointy. Many a person has done a bit of unintentional self harm with pointy blades, pointy blades can be helpful of you ever needed to puncture cut something like a spray skirt ( A sharp blade can make up for this ).
• How are you going to attach it or where are you going to put it?
• What is it made out of, lots of river knives are made out of polished chrome which wont last long in a river environment. And even some blades that are stainless steel they are still not up to the riggers of river use. All of the NRS knives above are made from  420HC Stainless Steel  which is perfect for what we boaters demand of it.

All in all I reckon NRS have you pretty much covered no matter what style of knife you prefer to use, one of the best thing about them aside from there design & savage build quality is that they are super value to with the Wingman coming in at just €25 and the Pilots costing a little bit more at €35.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a quality river knife and more importantly how and when to use it.

That’s all until next time.

Adrian

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