After a long swim (and beat down), you will be very tempted to stand up when you get close to shore.  Think before you stand.  If the water is moving quickly and deeper than your knees, you could slip and fall.  Worse yet, unstable footing can lead to foot entrapment.  Wait for still water like an eddy.  Always take your time standing and make certain you have decent footing.  Here is a decent video on the subject: When to Stand.

Even if your roll is 100% bombproof, take time to practice aggressive swimming techniques.  Even the best boaters swim occasionally (although not  very often).  Knowing how to swim in powerful water can save your life.  Short sprints of very aggressive swimming can also enable you to reach a pin victim very rapidly.

Although everyone strives for that perfect roll, sooner or later most of us swim (although it may be years in between those swims).  In addition, many rescues require getting someone out to the victim in a big hurry.  This is especially true for entrapment and some unstable pins.  Getting to the victim may require some boating, wading, and judicious swimming.  Really good boaters can pretty much swim any rapid up to class IV (and some class V rapids as well).  Two broad categories of swimming techniques are defensive (save your energy) and aggressive (get to a safe location ASAP!).  Knowing how to properly swim in whitewater can not only help you save others, it may save your life some day.  Here is a very humorous introduction to this subject: Revised Rapid Ratings Swim Scale.

• Essential self-rescue and access tool
• Safe eddy rule, don't try to stand in swift current
• Defensive and aggressive swimming
• Strategies to conserve energy including positioning, short aggressive position sprints and \"porpoising\" for in-water scouting
• Defensive to aggressive transitions
• Aggresive upstream and downstream orientation (upstream ferry and downstream eddy catching)
• Crossing eddy lines
• Ferry techniques
• Managing holes and drops

Remember the acronym RETHROG.  This article covers the forst two parts - Reach and Throw.Reach is pretty easy to understand, someone fell off a bank close by.  You can simply reach down and grab them.  For a bit more reach, you can toss them webbing you might be carrying with you.  Throwing is much more common.  A key piece of gear every intermediate whitewater boater should have is a throw rope.  Throw ropes vary in length between 50' and 70'.  It takes some practice to become skilled in tossing a throw rope but in an emergency, your practice will pay off quite handsomely.  You typically aim for the center of their chest - don't make them swim for a rope as that can be quite dangerous.  Once they grab the line, be prepared with a strong belay position to handle the shock load.  Whenever working with ropes, set safety above and below the rapid.  The upstream person is responsible for warning other boaters about the danger down below.  You should also have some sort of cutting tool like a knife or trauma shears to protect against entanglement.  Here is a short video with an example: Throw Rope Toss.