If you want to learn about safety, Mike Shillinger is the type of person you’d like to teach you. In addition to being an ACA Level 4 Certified Swift Water Rescue Instructor and safety program coordinator for the Tennessee Valley Canoe Club, Lt. Col. (Ret) Shillinger also has experience serving with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. When the whitewater hits the fan, Shillinger knows how to handle the situation.
Shillinger sat down for Q&A with Get Out to fill readers in on how to stay safe this spring.
Get Out Chattanooga: How do paddling hazards in our area compare to other rivers in the Southeast?
Mike Shillinger: We are lucky to have paddling water all four seasons since our free flows don’t ice over as they do in other parts of the country. Most of our free flows have water during our rainy winter and spring months, and typically run only after certain amounts of rainfall. These small watersheds can flashflood very quickly as well. Some of them have gauges, but a lot of them don’t. This requires judgment and experience, to ‘make the call’ to run it or pull the plug on a trip. Many accident reports start with paddlers saying ‘Well, we thought since we were here, we’d go ahead and paddle …’
GOC: Are there any stretches of water in the area that are deceptively dangerous?