Skip to content

Two kayakers escape unscathed after mishap on Seymour River in North Van

Kayakers swept downstream in fast-moving water caught a lucky break, say rescue crews

Two kayakers who got into trouble in fast-moving water on Seymour River managed to catch a lucky break on Sunday and escape their adventure unscathed.

The drama unfolded just before noon when onlookers on shore in the area of the Grantham Place bridge - just north of Mount Seymour Parkway - spotted the kayakers out of their kayaks in the water, struggling to get back in.

“We received multiple 911 calls,” said David Dales, assistant chief of operations with District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue.

The kayakers were swept along by fast-moving water and were spotted again by fishermen on shore in the area of the river near the Dollarton Highway.

Dales said at first, because of the number of calls coming in from different parts of the river, emergency crews thought there might have been up to eight kayakers in the water. Rescue teams were sent to different bridges and an RCMP helicopter was sent up to suss out how many kayakers were in trouble.

Fortunately by that time, the kayakers had reached calmer waters and were able to pull themselves up on to the shore, said Dales.

Dales said the kayakers were fortunate. “The swift water environment is one of the most dangerous environments we operate in,” he said.

Even when wearing a life jacket, it’s easy for someone in the water to be pushed under, he said. “The hydraulics are so powerful when the water’s running that heavy.”

In addition, conditions can vary widely in different parts of the river. “It might be raining 15 centimetres an hour” lower down, he said and “you go up the river and it could be raining 50 centimetres an hour.”

The two kayakers were shaken up, and one of them had a minor hand wound, but they were otherwise OK, said Dales.

“They’d gone through the rapids – and not in the kayaks,” he said. “It was probably Class 2, Class 3 rapids.”

Dales said the kayakers’ skill level and equipment didn’t match the conditions on the river at the time. “They’re lucky,” he said.

Metro Vancouver monitoring stations showed the river flow on the Seymour surged from about 16 cubic metres a second around 7 a.m. Sunday to about 65 cubic metres a second by noon. River levels rose about half a metre in that time.

 

Seymour River graph June13A graph showing rapidly rising stream flows on the Seymour River on Sunday. By Metro Vancouver