Close call, Kayaker gets pinned in a sieve, with rescue @ Richland Creek, AR

Apple pie rapid has a notorious sieve on the left side, only in play at high water (over 5’). A member of our crew was pushed off line and happened to find the sieve, and pinned bow first, upside down. Fortunately he was able to hold himself up on a log that was stuffed under the rock already. But the log was also preventing him from being able to pull his sprayskirt, so he was essentially stuck. I realized he was in a bad situation and tried to get to him as quickly as possible, leaving behind my throw rope in my boat as I was focused on getting to him and stabilizing him. When I got to him I tried to grab him but the water was too deep and turbulent to safely reach him in the sieve. Thankfully another member of our crew was right behind me with a rope that we were able to get to him, and pull him out of his shoes and through his sparayskirt. In hindsight, I should have taken the extra couple seconds and grabbed my rope, something I will make sure I do from now on. We were abe to extract the kayak with a z-d