Cold Water Survival Training in King Cove

At the beginning of November, AMSEA sent two instructors, Coral Pendell and myself, to King Cove for three days of hands-on marine safety youth training for all students at King Cove School. This trip continued AMSEA’s goal of giving young rural Alaskans meaningful, practical safety experiences that build strong habits early in life and help prevent future injuries and fatalities in outdoor and marine settings. This training was made possible by support from Karen Keck, all of the wonderful teachers at King Cove School, and funding from the Aleut Foundation. 

In King Cove, we taught for three days, rotating through elementary, middle, and high school groups. The youngest students learned about cold-water survival through stories, games, clothing demonstrations, and joined together for activities like hypothermia burrito wraps, PFD scenarios, and practicing their first MAYDAY calls. Older elementary students expanded on these ideas with more complex scenarios, knot tying on real cleats, immersion suit demonstrations, and hands-on weather and tide experiments. Both groups finished with a cumulative musical chairs activity to practice all that they had learned.

Middle and high school students spent their mornings working through advanced survival skills with hands-on practice. Over three days they learned about the Seven Steps to Survival, cold water survival skills, layering and heat-loss, survival kit building, and practiced outdoor compass navigation. They then moved on to PFD and immersion suit practice, anchoring and docking concepts, float plans, engine basics, and vessel orientation. Their ice-safety and person-overboard recovery drills were especially energetic, with students hauling each other across the gym floor using throw bags and playing self-rescue freeze tag. On the final day, the students spent time on signals practice including radio calls, MAYDAYs, PLBs, flares, mirrors, and outdoor SOS tests and learning about fire-building, fire-fighting, and bear safety. They wrapped up the training with a competitive Jeopardy review that showed just how much they had absorbed over the week. 

Across all ages, the students of King Cove demonstrated strong interest and enthusiasm for learning. Many shared their own experiences on boats and around the water, from river fishing to working on commercial vessels. Whether using compasses to navigate outdoors to find survival kit components or racing to don immersion suits, the students embraced AMSEA’s hands-on approach to learning. 

We are grateful to the King Cove community for welcoming us, helping with lessons and logistics, and ensuring all students had the support they needed to participate. AMSEA looks forward to returning to work with the Aleutians East Borough School District and continuing to build lifelong safety skills with youth across Alaska.