I done three eskimo recues last night and felt nice and warm in my
wetsuit,
one of the girls wearing a pair of shorts was complaining about the cold
on
her first tip over. Not too specialist or extreme

An eskimo rescue is specialist if you take a general view of paddling
the full spectrum of canoes and kayaks. There are plenty of boats where
you won't do one because the boats don't run with decks and you can't
brace yourself in. For such craft an eskimo rescue is esoteric and
overspecialised, and thus rather an extreme thing to learn.
In many boats if you go in then you'll swim. As long as you can swim
then there's not much issue with doing extra practice, and you're better
getting on with how not to swim...

Sounds like we are talking CCK 2 star here, and eskimo is , as I am sure you
know, part of the syllabus. We actually start teaching it from day one in
the pool as it helps with hip flicks. Amazing to see kids just starting out,
capsize, reach out and grab the nearest boat and flip themselves back up...

If CCK then, by definition, an eskimo rescue is always an option. HST, you'd
probably be very lucky to use it "textbook" fashion in anger, I suspect.

Ewan Scott