RescueApplications

Originally designed for ocean lifesaving in large surf or where strong rip currents are prevalent, the Extractor sled has evolved over the years to take punishment and abuse; and, it has been designed specifically to incorporate features desired by working professionals. The ruggedness and durability of this device is what has made it deemed "Militarized".

Military Use:

Military personnel use this sled effectively with the personal watercraft as:

Fire/Rescue and EMS personnel use the Extractor sled in all forms of water rescue:

Many water rescue training instructors and working professionals prefer the Extractor Sled with the Quick Hitch over other sleds and over the basket for several reasons:

Some rescue trainers and personnel will argue that the basket is the right tool for the job because you can get the basket to sink under the person and you can secure them into the basket easily without having to lift a cold, heavy person onto a sled. I tell them, you have not tried an Extractor. The stability offered in the Extractor is unsurpassed. The instability of a single point or the sloppiness of a 3-point hookup forces the rescue swimmer to spend a great deal of energy concentrating on stabilizing the sled or basket and maintaining balance. This energy could better be used by focusing on securing the victim. The stability in the Extractor sled offers this. One can focus in on grabbing the victim and swinging them around to the rear of the sled. With pwc in motion, the victim's body parallels the water surface, allowing the victim to slide up easily onto the deck of the sled.

Once again, the Extractor sled, using the same design principles that it takes to allow a surfboard ride on a wave face, perform rail to rail turns without digging in, and track a path without sliding out or fishtailing, is the innovator of this concept and has been using it for over a decade. It has only been recently that some of the bodyboard sled manufacturers have tossed away their flat-rockered designs and have begun to use a sled with some rolled vee in the sled bottoms so that the sled turns easier and does not dig a rail. Hmm, I wonder where they got that idea?

Commentary: Is "Soft" really all that Soft?

Some lifeguards in the past have expressed a misconception that a sled needs to have forgiving rails like those found on a bodyboard or a soft inflatable or a flexible bag-like contraption. The reason for this is for fear that should a lifeguard inadvertently steer the pwc and sled into a distressed swimmer in a manner, whereby, the sled hits the swimmer in the head, it will not knock them out or bludgeon them.

What needs to be addressed is that whether a sled is made of foam or a sled is made of a more solid material, if they are equal in weight,deflect or absorb impact similarly, and they make contact with an individual at the same speed, they will perform equal amounts of force on the individual.

F=ma (Force equals the mass or weight of an object, multiplied by the acceleration of the object at the point in time it makes contact with another object.) If you do the math you will see that both sleds would inflict the same amount of damage.

Flexible sleds do not work well and they are dangerous. A flexible sled may be a soft object to run into someone with, but should the pwc stop forward momentum suddenly, the flexible contraption will fold up and collapse in on itself. I have seen this happen before. The lifeguard riding on the flexible sled (a foam stuffed bag) lost some of his front teeth because the flexible sled caused him to ram his head into the rear of the pwc seat.

Extractor has 100s of sleds in use worldwide, and in the 10 years of their use, not once has someone reported to Extractor that they hit someone or were hit by the sled with enough force to cause harm. And, we are always asking for feedback from our customers.

Extractor incorporates a feature into the sled design by using materials that allow for impact absorption, much like a bumper. The sled incorporates a rigid hull with a flat deck surface for c-spine injuries; and, although not as soft appearing as foam materials found in bodyboards, it deflects as much as bodyboard foams do and it is more durable. Extractor could make a sled that is real soft and cushion-like. However, in doing so, we would be sacrificing durability and quality. We would rather produce a quality product than one that would adopt a bad reputation for falling apart...lives depend on it!