SAFETY

CALL - 925.820.2628 Carabiners Pulleys Floating Rope Non-Floating Kernmantle Rope Hoopi Throwbags Knives

Throwbags, river knives, floating rope, kernmantle rope, pulleys, carabiners, and other general river rescue & safety items are in this section.

If you are unclear about how to use something on this page, please ask or get instruction from someone qualified to help.

Updated May 2008

Two of our suppliers carry a full range of climbing supplies well beyond the small selection of rescue-related items we show here, so if you need other unwraping or portage gear, let us know.

Carabiners

Omega Carabiners come in standard oval or "D" shapes ($6each), and we also stock the handy locking ($8) and bent gate ($7, not shown) versions.

Pulleys

The compact 1 " Micro Pulley ($14, right) has a nylon bushing with a 3000 pound rating, which means it would be fine for unwrapping an inflatable kayak but not a large raft.

Our other small pulley, the CMI 1" ($24, left) has double the load rating of the Micro at a full 6000 lbs. This is truly a "tiny wonder". In purple, easy to spot if you drop it in the water.

CMI's 2" pulley (at right, $26) opens wider and offers minimum rope friction, though it's slightly more bulky; this one is rated at 5000 pounds working load. A celcon bushing ensures smooth operation. Red.

We have access to many, many other pulleys as well with up to 10 ton ratings ranging to $80, so let us know your needs.

Floating Rope

Ropes have taken a very steep climb in price in the last 12 to 16 months, though we aren't sure exactly why.

Standard 3/8" Spectra Line (.79/foot) is an excellent floating kernmantle cord produced specifically for watersports rescue with a rated strength of 4900 lbs, though we think this is a fairly optimistic figure.Anyrope that floats has to have a large percentage of polypro in the inner core and this construction can never have the same strength as a non-floating mountain rescue rope like the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) cord below. Mountaineering ropes, made with nylon & polyester, are generally rated far more conservatively. Spectra Line is bright yellow with a red marker. We do not carry 1/4" Spectra since we don't feel it's a good value, but we do stock non-floating 1/4" static rope (see below).

The makers of Spectra Line also produce 3/8" Snakebraid Floating (35 cents per foot) rope with a yellow/red diagonal pattern. Since it is made from polypro fibers it should not be used under high stress - like unwrapping big rafts from rocks - but it does have a hard enough finish to use with pulleys in less critical applications. Snakebraid does have a surprisingly high tensile strength of 1800 lbs and we have hoisted fully loaded oar rafts about 90 feet up through the air on a boom using this product.

Our top-of-the-line floating cord is New England Rope Company's 11mm Water Rescue Rope. This product is considerable larger than the Spectra and is rated 20% higher in break strength. It is our best value by far in floating rescue rope. We only sell this in increments of 50 feet with a minimum of 100'. Pricing is as follows: 100': $85;  150': $125;  200': $160;  300': $235;  450': $345; 600': $439

Non-Floating Kernmantle Rope

We stock ABC's 7mm 2900 lb. Accessory Cord at .44 cents/foot in blue, and a 6mm Accessory Cord in purple at .36 cents/foot rated at 2350 pounds. These ropes are handy for an inflatable kayaker who wants to carry a length of strong rope for unwrapping that won't take up a lot of room. The ABC accessory cords do not float, so they are not intended for rescuing swimmers.

ABC's Response is a 3/8" line rated at a terrific 6500 pounds. It comes in both white and orange with a marker band in lengths up to 600'. Pricing here is on what we have left in stock, as we will be discontinuing this rope. If we have to re-order, the price will be 25% higher than shown here. The white is priced at .75/foot and the orange at .82/foot.

Last but not least is Wellington Lanyard, a monster 5/8"+ ship rope with 100% nylon construction and a tensile strength of over 8000 pounds. It is a very soft rope that requires a fairly large pulley (like the CMI 2" listed above) if you wish to use it with one. This stuff sinks like a rock and is not intended for use with toss bags or tiny pulleys. The color is a white/gold braid and the pricing is a very fair .89/foot, or .85/ft. for lengths 100'+.

Hoopi

Usually used for lacing in floors on self-bailing rafts, hoopi is also handy for tying down gear and has very high tensile strength since it's made of 100% tubular nylon. We carry 5/8" at .24/foot (.16/ft. for lengths 100'+) in white, and 1" in purple, teal, and white at .39/foot. The 1" is rated at 4000 lbs, and the 5/8" at 2700.

Throwbags

We've discontinued our own throwbags due to both the fact that we simply can't make them for what we buy the Dirty Devil bags below for, and because regular business and website maintainence eats too much time to leave leftover hours for playing on our trusty industrial sewing machine.

Dirty Devil (formerly known as Canyon) produces heavy duty Kayaker's and Rafter's bags with the bottom halves reinforced with 1000 denier cordura. These have 50 feet of 5/16" yellow braided polypro (kayak bag, $27) or 70' of 3/8" (rafters bag, $35). This is one of the best deals you will ever find on throwbags, trust us!

Our other throwbag is the Downstream Rafters Bag (no photo), which comes standard with 70' of 3/8" Snakebraid ($48) or it can be stuffed with 65' of Spectra 3/8" ($75). The Spectra rope is stiff which is why a bit less of it fits in the bag. The Downstream bag is physically very large, so it is not a good choice for inflatable or hardshell kayakers.

Knives

Knives are pretty much a "must have" item for river runners. Our four most economical knives are the small Samish & Blakely's (at right), the Frost (yellow knife on left, in right photo below), and the Divers (at right, in right photo below).

The double edged Samish ($22) and single edge Blakely ($19) come in bright yellow-green and have slotted plastic sheaths to slip straps through for easy lifejacket attachment. These Taiwanese knives would be killer deals but we have found that if you exert inward force on the lower half of either knife - which both use the same sheath - the knife can slip out. It's not a huge problem, but if you were climbing back into a raft or i.k. with your chest against the boat hull, you might find the knife missing. There is a small raised tab on each side of the yellow handle near the blade that snaps into a corresponding hole in the sheath, and this tab can move out of the hole if a Samish or Blakely is bent or pushed inward the wrong way.

The Frost ($16, yellow knife in right photo below) is a decent single edge knife for it's low price, but it does take some ingenuity to mount one on your pfd. The sheath just has a snap button strap that wraps around the bottom of the knife handle - certainly not the best design for retaining a knife. We will be discontinuing these in the near future.

The Divers knife ($25, the knife on right in the right photo below) is nice knock-off of the more expensive Tekna/Ocean Edge, but the sheath is very big and a bit brittle, so keep the epoxy handy if you buy one. Double-edged, serrated on one side, and a great deal for the bucks.

About the only knives we still carry from Gerber are the pointy and blunt tip Shorties ($36, center knife in picture at left), and we try to keep these in the bright fluorescent yellow handle models rather than the black one shown. Shorties have polished single-edge blades and a simple, functional "friction" sheaths.
If you use a knife frequently for mayonaise, etc, you should not buy one of these since the catches tend to wear after time, letting the knife slip out too easily. Overall though we consider these one of the better values among our river knives. You can glue the open end of the sheath pocket clip shut for attachment via straps (or a strap) to your p.f.d.

By far our two most popular high-end knives are the Kershaw Amphibian ($54, bottom knife in photo at right) and Sea Hunter ($48, top knife, now with blunt tip), both of which actually went down in price this year. These have  more than replaced the pricey Teknas, which we no longer stock, in every aspect because the sheath releases can't fail. They are also the easiest ones to mount of any knife we carry, with two closed slots on the back sides for straps to run through.
The Amphibian has a sharp tip and skeletal handle, and the Sea Hunter grip is sticky hard rubber with flourescent yellow hilt and end tips. The release is just part of the plastic sheath and you push down to get the knife out. The only caveat is that you do have to push it down hard with your thumb to release the knife. A gentle touch won't do, and if it did you would lose the knife when re-boarding a raft or inflatable kayak. Again, the photo above shows the Hunter with a point, but it now comes as a screwdriver blunt tip only.

Samoa diver's knives in stock, but we won't be reordering these when they are gone. The pointy-tip Samoa Orca ($36, left) and chisel-tip Samoa Cypress ($34, right) are very long knives at 10" with the sheath, probably longer than most rafters will want mounted on their chests. They are also heavier than any other knife in this section, a full half pound. These negatives aside, there are a lot of good things about the Samoa knives too, like the extremely high strength both the long direction and laterally, making them perfect for prying shells open. Or, uh... pressure-seized dryboxes! For large-handed people, the big comfortable handles are great, and the pricing is excellent for something of this quality. Samoa's are also very easy to mount with their two strap slots. The push-down knife release is extremely well thought out since it is flush with the adjacent area, making it impossible to push accidently. In other words, if these were 2" shorter we would be selling them like hotcakes!

Degen Cordura Accessory Sheaths are the perfect size for pocket knives and sheath-less knives up to 5 " folded length. Long (5") sheath: $5;  Short: (4") Sheath: $4. (No photos, in black only)

Degen Pocket Knives ($12) are very sharp little folders with a dark teal-blue hard rubber handle. These have 2-1/2" German stainless blades and are very high quality for this low close-out price.

You may want to keep a handy Gerber Multitool in your first aid or patch kit. Great for changing valves, pulling up old patches, opening cans, filing fingernails, emergency dental work, etc, etc. With a 25 year warranty! $55.