A massive rescue took place on Lake Erie over the weekend when more than 130 ice fishermen found themselves trapped on an ice floe that had broke away from the shore. Wearing Ice Commanders and MSD900 Breathable Immersion Work Suits, rescuers spent four hours getting people back to shore.

The WaterWise Team has been busy these last few weeks with various events, presentations and on-water visits. We finished our school presentations at the end of June, but continued doing WaterWise Wisdom visits at local campgrounds and parks.

Keri and I have been out on the WaterWise boat all over British Columbia; talking with enthusiastic boaters from Nanaimo to Vernon! We headed out for a tour of the Okanagan area in early July, where we spoke to over 250 boaters during our on-water courtesy safety checks and handed out some Mustang PFDs! We returned from sunny Kalamalka Lake just in time to do a few more WaterWise Wisdom presentations around the lower mainland before heading out to Vancouver Island for the Nanaimo Marine Festival and Championship Bathtub Race.

This week we’ve been assisting the Vancouver Police Department and Transport Canada’s Office of Safe Boating in preparing local boat launches for HSBC’s Celebration of Light.
Next up for the Team: we’re off to Penticton for the 61st annual Peach Festival! We’ll keep you updated!

Rachel and Keri

After the Ice Rescue training at Lifesaving Resources I headed to the warmer climate of Florida for the Miami International Boat Show. It was great to see some of the amazing new boats out there and to dream about finding myself on one cruising the Keys. After waking up from my daydream it was down to business, checking out the countless displays and meeting with some of my contacts in the boating media.

One person that I was pleasantly surprised to meet while I was there is Bruce Wright Recreational Boating Safety Specialist with the US Coast Guard. Bruce travels for many months of the year with this amazing trailer he’s built to show people how comfortable lifejackets are now and gives them an opportunity to try different ones on to see which one is right for them. It was great to check it out first hand.

One of the coolest parts of the trailer is a simulator for kids. They get to put on a lifejacket and sit on seats that actually show them how a boat moves in the water while they can see what would be happening on a big screen in front of them. Its really quite cool.

If you are ever at an event where Bruce has the trailer its really worth checking out. Not only is it fun, it will educate you about being comfortable and safe on the water too!

ABC affiliate WJRT in Michigan went along as the US Coast Guard practiced ice rescue on Station Saginaw River. The training involved the students themselves going into the icy cold water to be rescued by their classmates.

In the two videos you can see them wearing our Breathable Immersion Work Suit that you can use as a regular work suit and double as an ice rescue immersion suit as well as the US Coast Guard SAR Vest with LIFT.