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Rigg International Swiftwater Challenge
Contact Person: Shawn Alladio Telephone Number: (714) 997-2645 Email Address: RiggChallenge@aol.com Web site address: www.higginslangley.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT'S
San Diego-California. On October 2-3, 2003, the premiere Rigg Swiftwater Challenge provided three elite California swiftwater rescue teams with an opportunity to test their skills in the first athletic competition based upon technical rescue techniques used when performing swiftwater and flood rescue operations. Named in honor of pioneering swiftwater rescue and flood safety education advocate Nancy Rigg of Los Angeles, teams participating in the challenge included key swiftwater rescue personnel from Los Angeles who serve on the county's innovative Multi-Agency Swiftwater Rescue Task Force, a program that Rigg envisioned and fought for in the aftermath of the death of her fiancé, Earl Higgins. Higgins lost his life in 1980 during an attempt to rescue a child being swept down the flood-swollen Los Angeles River. The child miraculously survived, but Higgins was swept 30-miles downstream past rescuers who had neither the training nor equipment needed to perform a successful and safe swiftwater rescue. "By providing search and rescue personnel with the proper training and equipment they need to perform swiftwater and flood rescue operations," Rigg says, "we not only protect our valuable public safety professionals, but we also give victims who are swept away in floods and storm surges a fighting chance to be rescued." Rigg added that she hopes the swiftwater rescue challenge bearing her name "will help promote awareness about this highly technical and specialized rescue discipline, because the more rescuers who receive swiftwater and flood rescue training, the more victims will be saved in future flooding disasters." The three six-member teams participating in the challenge included the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), Alameda County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue (ALCO), and a team sponsored by the Kawasaki Motors Corporation from the College of Search and Rescue (COSAR), comprised of members of the Los Angeles City Fire Department's swiftwater rescue team. THE CHALLENGE: Day One: A power plant swift flowing jetty in Carlsbad provided the swiftwater venue site for a series of disciplines that included a throw bags competition, swimming rescues, boat based courses, line systems and a technical rescue challenge. After the safety briefing given by Event Coordinator Jim Segerstrom, the three teams quickly broke into huddles to prepare their strategies. Teams were timed and given points to earn the overall title, or individual titles, per event disciplines. And the team with the most timed points earned the first championship. The Los Angeles County Fire Department took the lead early on winning four out of the five swiftwater rescue events. They appeared to be heading towards a complete blitz until the R2 boating event dropped them to a 3rd place finish. COSAR dominated the win for the R2 event placing them ahead of ALCO, paddling an inflatable Oceanid boat through a series of gates from river left to river right. LACoFD, with swiftwater rescue instructors, surfing enthusiasts, and Los Angeles County Lifeguards on their team, really shined in the final team swim event on a grueling course at the completion of the day when the other teams were nearing exhaustion. Day Two: Los Angeles County Fire Department had already clinched the championship heading into the second day of competition, so the battle for 2nd and 3rd places was between Alameda and COSAR. Mission Bay was the setting for the Yamaha sponsored personal watercraft (PWC) Team Rescue. Wahoo Lifesleds donated two rescue boards, one used in the competition and the other as a prize for the overall team winner. Teams were given three hours to practice prior to competing. Team members split into two groups of three to navigate the buoy course, pick up a victim and return through the start-stop gate. Two runs were given and times were combined for their overall score. The team runs looked almost identical, until LACoFD took a spin on the near last buoy taking them out of contention. Alameda County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team won the overall and this also clinched their 2nd place tie-breaking points to edge out COSAR. This was an extremely close event! Kawasaki sponsored the Individual PWC Slalom event. Competitors negotiated a zigzag buoy course of seven turning points for two runs. The lowest time placed. Greg Weber of LACoFD barely edged out COSAR's Greg Terrill by .07 of a second to win the first place prize! Andrew Wright of ALCO took 3rd place, setting a mere .08 of a second behind Terrill. Placings continued down to 10th place. In the PWC Team Slalom event, COSAR (Scott Mitchell and Domingo Albarran) took the first place position, and the "person overboard" award was given to ALCO's Leah Waarvik for her interesting completion of the start stop gates on the slalom course. Special thanks went to the COSAR team and the Los Angeles City Fire Department for supporting the PWC event, and to the Personal Watercraft Industry for their free law loan program. AWARDS: The awards were given out for each individual event, including the overall team placings. The Los Angeles County Fire Department team won the SkyHook Rescue Systems prize for winning the Technical Challenge event. After they received their award, Team Captain Bryan Wells announced that the LACoFD Team was "going to donate this prize to the Alameda County Sheriff's Search and Rescue volunteer team", handing over the grand prize to ALCO Team Captain Bill Weber. "Our team is very grateful for the generosity of the LACoFD team, as a volunteer group we appreciate the SkyHook donation and will put it to good use," Weber said. "We are honored to be competing with the best agencies in Los Angeles Country, and we thank everyone for their support." Jim Segerstrom, founder of the Rigg Challenge Swiftwater event, donated a two-day course through his company, Special Rescue Services, to the Los Angeles County Fire Department team for their outstanding competition level. LACoFD also received a 3-day Personal Watercraft Rescue Boat course from K38 Water Safety, a PWC rescue training company run by Shawn Alladio and Kyla Dominguez. Thank you to the teams that, under very short notice, took the lead to participate, as well as all the product sponsors who donated prizes and equipment! The organizers would also like to thank the wonderful volunteers who donated their resources, including San Diego Fire dispatchers Todd Smith and Edward Mendevil for managing the awards barbecue, Bob Blakeslee for designing the website, the NRG Cabrillo Power Operations for use of the warm water jetty, and Nancy Rigg for her inspiration. Charity contributions from the challenge were donated to the Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards in Swiftwater Rescue, the most prestigious international awards presented to water rescue professionals who are dedicated to lifesaving in incidents involving swift water, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes. The awards honor Nancy Rigg's fiancé, Earl Higgins, and firefighter/paramedic Jeffrey Langley of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who died in a helicopter incident in 1993. |