Strainers and sweepers are the two hazards you meet most on the small rivers that suit a packraft. One sits in the current and lets water through while it holds you. The other hangs over the water at head height and knocks you off your seat. Learn to spot both from a long way off and you paddle easy rivers with a relaxed mind, because you always see them first.
Two hazards, one habit
A strainer is anything in the current that water passes through and a body does not. Fallen trees, root balls, branch piles, willow thickets, flood debris caught on a bridge pylon, a fence strung across a farm creek.
A sweeper is a tree or branch that leans out from the bank and hangs low over the water, or just touches it. Current carries you under it, and it catches your chest, your paddle or your pack.
The habit that handles both is the same. Look far downstream, pick them out early, and set your line well before you reach them.
| Feature | What it is | Where you find it | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strainer | Anything in the flow that water passes through | Outside of bends, after floods, below eroding banks | Pins a swimmer or a hull against it while the current keeps pushing |
| Sweeper | A tree or branch hanging low over the water | Undercut banks, willow-lined reaches, narrow creeks | Catches the paddler above the waterline and tips or holds them |
Where they hide
Current runs to the outside of a bend, and so does everything it carries. The outside bank is undercut, trees topple into it, and logs wash up against it. Expect timber on every outside bend until you can see that it is clear.
After a flood, assume the river has changed. A reach you knew last season can have a new tree across it this week.
Watch for these signs as you paddle:
- A branch or trunk end breaking the surface, often with a small wave or a V pointing upstream.
- Water piling up against something, or a flat patch that suddenly bulges or boils.
- Foam, leaves and flotsam gathering in one place. The current is collecting it, and it would collect you.
- A bend you cannot see around, especially where the banks are steep and wooded.
- Willows along the edge. Their trailing branches often hide a solid tangle underneath.
- Wire or posts at a property boundary. Fences across creeks are common on farmland.
Setting your line early
Short hulls turn quickly and drift sideways just as easily. Give yourself room. Point the bow away from the hazard and ferry across the current in good time, rather than making a late sprint that leaves you broadside.
On a bend, hold the inside line. It is slower and shallower. Gravel is fine. Timber is not.
Space out in a group. Each paddler needs room to react, and the person behind needs to see what the leader does. Nominate a lead who reads the water and stops everyone in an eddy when a bend looks doubtful.
If you cannot see a clear line, get out above it and walk the bank to look. A packraft carries easily around a blocked reach, and a short portage through the scrub beats any gamble in the current.
Sweepers take a different eye
Most paddlers look at the water. Sweepers live above it. Scan the space between the surface and about two metres up as well as the river itself, particularly on tight creeks with overhanging banks.
Pass on the open side. If the current pushes you toward a low branch you cannot avoid, turn the bow downstream, keep your paddle low and in front of you, and lean away from the branch rather than raising an arm into it. A branch caught with a raised paddle levers you straight out of your seat.
If you are pushed onto one
In the hull, lean toward the obstacle, into the downstream side. It feels wrong. Leaning away lets the upstream tube dip, the current climbs onto the floor, and the packraft wraps. Leaning in keeps the upstream edge high while you work along the log to one end.
Out of the hull, the swimming rule changes near timber. On open current you float on your back with your feet up and downstream. Near a strainer you roll onto your front and swim hard at it, then kick and pull yourself up and over the top. Never let the current take your feet under a log.
Let the packraft and the paddle go if they are the thing holding you. Kit is replaceable.
Build the skill before you need it
Strainer swims and rescues are taught on swiftwater and river rescue courses with an instructor and a controlled site. That is the place to feel the difference between a defensive float and an aggressive swim, and to practise throw-bag rescues with your group.
Carry a throw bag on moving water and a river knife where you can reach it with one hand. Both are useless if nobody in the group has practised with them.
Easy water, eyes open
Seeka packrafts are built for lakes, estuaries and gentle rivers, and gentle rivers are exactly where timber is the main hazard. A clear view downstream, room to manoeuvre and the willingness to walk a doubtful bend keep those days easy.
Every Seeka self-bails and carries a two-year warranty on materials and welding. Or hire one for a weekend first.