“Mike Mather is at the top of his game as the most experienced swiftwater rescue instructor in the country,” said Jerry McAward of the Northeast PA Kayak School in Weissport who brought Mather to northeast Pennsylvania to train Lehigh Paddlers and raise the bar when it comes to safety preparedness among kayakers and rafters.

Swiftwater Rescue is the art of understanding what can happen during a river trip, why it happens, how to avoid it, what to do when a rescue is necessary, and doing it fast.

During the two two-day workshops from July 19 to 22, Mather literally taught the roughly forty participants the ropes of rescue—and how to avoid letting ropes become hazards.

Last June, a couple that had taken Mather’s course two weeks earlier rescued a 13-year-old boy—a non-swimmer—who had been playing near shore, was swept downstream by strong currents in 50-degree water, and was discovered pinned against a bridge. They wrote Mather about the rescue. "He said it was the coolest e-mail he'd ever gotten."

Mather teaches how to protect one’s self, to be prepared for situations, and when things do go wrong, and how to get other people out of them.

“If someone does get entrapped, I show them how to set up simple systems, how to wade out into the water and get the person’s out of the water, or if it is too dangerous to actually wade out, using simple rope techniques to help them get their head out of the water, or help them get loose,” Mather explained.

Mather comes from a rock climbing and kayaking background. He trains numerous rescue companies around the country and has been personally involved with seven swiftwater rescues. “He is a top-notch kayaker who has chosen to specialize in river rescue, plus he is a great guy,” said McAward. “Mather is The Man.”

Mather’s honed his skills after crossing from rock climbing to becoming a whitewater raft guide in the late 1980s on West Virginia’s Gauley and New Rivers. Early in his guiding career, a woman fell out of a commercial whitewater raft on the New River on a rapid called Middle Keeney.

“She washed between two rocks called Meat Grinder and was pinned on a piece of wood caught between them. She was 100-feet from shore—too far for a 55-foot rope to reach. As the rescue took shape, rafts began rubbernecking along the shore. After 45-minutes of unsuccessful rescue, one raft drifted into the current and pinned against the upper rock. A guide in the raft pulled out her limp body.

Mather recognized that speed is the most important part of a rescue and his technique focuses on it. His last rescue took place in Germany a couple of years ago. “A girl came out of her kayak, didn’t understand self rescue principles and got folded over a tree with her kayak pinned against her.

“We had to first remove her kayak, then, get to her,” Mather said. “It took about seven minutes from pin to extrication.”

As in all other aspects of safety training, the proverbial ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When it comes to swiftwater, the ability to recognize potential pin situations can make all the difference.

Especially after a heavy rain, or when rounding the bed of an unfamiliar river, he teaches to anticipate that a fallen tree might be blocking the river and forming a strainer, a situation where the water can pass, but a person cannot and is trapped by the force of the water. Being forewarned is forearmed—a paddler would thus have enough time to skirt around the obstacle and avoid the entrapment for himself and his party.

This was Mather’s first visit to the Lehigh River. He calls it, “Famous in the East and well known in the West.”

“People love it,” Mather added. “It’s a great place to work on your rescue skills.”