mostly yes
Posted by: Mattt
on Dec-06-12 2:39 PM (EST)
of the people I routinely paddle rivers with, I'd guess a good 50% or more do cary a throw bag and have it easily accesible. That group is all canoes - a few people I go with will use kayaks, and a few of those will have a throwrope. Most of the people who don't have one are newbies.
on ww, standard routine is for the first boat or two or whatever, to have the ropes more or less in hand setting safety below the rapids - I suppose you could consider that "practice" even if the ropes aren't used.
usually if I'm in my boat, I would just go with the boat to catch a swimmer rahter than throw a rope, and just tow them to an eddy
I don't recall seeing any throwing practice sessions - I've thrown my rope for real at least 3 times that I can recall - caught em all, for real.
a second try would be to just do a quick coil in the hanbd and rethrow