Ok, so you guys know I work with Jeff and Simon Osborne on their website (www.seakayakingcornwall.com). Even so, I can’t say I know Jeff all to well. But he’s always struck me as a pretty thoughtful guy. One thing is sure, as I read his incident management articles in OP, I’m coming to really respect the way he looks at things. As much as it’s a cliché, thinking ‘outside the box’ in sketchy situations is, well, obvious and a stroke of genius all at once.

Of course I’m not the expert these guys are but for what it’s worth I’d like to add my 10p. As an instructor I’m always looking at new ways to encourage new students to approach sea kayaking with an open mind. There is just too much dogma out there. Sometimes, especially when things go terribly wrong, dogma is well, dangerous. Sure it can be said that having methods inculcated in your brain will help you deal with stressful situations and to some extent that’s true. But sometimes just jumping into “rescue” mode can blind you to the obvious. Here’s my little case in point.

Paddling with another kayaker one day we were moving through some really messy water near shore. Waves were coming in from various directions and bouncing around some big rocks above the water and crashing across others that sat just below the surface. The whole mess was pushing into a nasty rock garden that rose up to the land next to us. The person I was paddling with got caught by a particularly big wave and was quickly tossed upside down into a toothy bit of shoreline. He was, well “f**ked”! The problem of course was that upside-down he was being battered a bit against the rocks and when he rolled up the first time he had only a moment before the next big wave crashed in and rolled him once again into the rocks.

The first time he rolled up, he called to me for help. I had run in close and slipped into a bit of calm in the tempest behind a big rock that was breaking each on coming wave. I learned in my time in Wales to seek out these little eddys when I needed a break. In this case it was a bit of calm in a storm. I was only short number of yards away from the carnage, but I didn’t dare go in after him or we’d both be well, you know the word! Besides he was in the end, upright with his paddle in hand. Even his kayak was facing the right direction. He just had to focus and move his tail out of there.

As he yelled “Help!” the second time he was rolled again. I was right there but I could not see anyway to get in there and be effective. He rolled back up. I thought, “You don’t need my help! Don’t just sit there, paddle!!!” and I jumped into “Drill Sargent mode”. “Paddle to me!” I yelled over the crashing waves. Sure I was sounding like a jerk. “Move your ass! Just paddle right here! Right To ME!!” I yelled. I could see the sudden focus, he looked right at me and paddled straight out. No problem. He slipped into the eddy beside me. With a quick angry look he said, “I was calling for help!”. Then in silence, we paddled out into the calmer water beyond. As we paddled away I explained, that there was no way I could come in to rescue him and that we would have both been. . (remember the word??) and that I saw he was upright and capable. He just needed focus. After awhile he calmed down and I think realized the situation and was soon talking about how well he handled it. How he rolled up each time and finally got out of there. .and with no lack of bravado. And that was ok. Lesson learned.

Was that a rescue? Well, yeah. As Jeff said, “Some paddlers will be able to rescue themselves and will only need reminding of the obvious.” Thing is, sometimes it’s not the waves, the rocks or the wind. Sometimes you need to rescue the mind. In those moments sometimes all of us can succumb to fear, panic or just poor thinking under stress. We can feel nothing but “I want out now!”. It’s natural. Yet in that state of mind you can be blind to the obvious. As the “rescuer” you have to assess the situation for both you and the person in trouble and make good decisions. Assess the environment. What’s going on in there? what caused the incident, and is the danger still there? Are there other risks? Assess the victim, their mindset, your abilities and if possible their abilities. What options do you have? Then decide what the best and safest course of action is. In real time this assessment only takes moments. Sometimes you can find that the best course is to tell the victim to “Pick up your bed and walk” in no uncertain terms. Yeah, I know that sounds harsh. Sorry. Still if the victim is alive to tell you what a jerk you are. . Well. . .

I’m not sure what the next step would have been had he not responded to my ornery commands. It would have been a blood bath trying to go into a rock garden being pummeled by big waves rushing in from the sea. I’m glad I didn’t have to face the “what’s next?” scenario. However it would have went down, it would not have been pretty.

You can read more great information from Jeff in his “Incident Management” section in Ocean Paddler.

Don’t Paddle Up Hill

I was told how to use a waves energy to move through the water in rough conditions. In stead of just paddling stroke by stroke as if the conditions did not exist. Newbies get tired quick in oncoming, quarting or broaching waves because they just “push on” and have not learned to become part of their environment. During my days paddling around Puerto Rico it seemed almost always the waves were coming at my boat from a 2 o’clock position. Day by day they ranged from 3 feet to 10 feet or on occasion a bit more. Well, if you just try to paddling through it you’re going to burn out fast. The first thing I remember a friend telling me was to not paddle “up hill”. Of course to do that efficiently you have to read the waves and meter your paddle strokes. In time you learn to accelerate down the back side of the wave, then hold your stroke as you go up the next wave, then paddle again on top of the wave and then down the backside. By doing this you do not waste energy trying to climb mountains.

Slalom Sea Kayaking

Well, in the last couple years I’ve paddled a lot with people much more skilled than I am. But I’m a pretty strong paddler. Still I would get burned out while they just smiled and raced forward. They used waves and gravity to move the boat, not muscle. So how did that work? Well, I had a lot of time to practice my Slalom Sea Kayaking skills (as I call them). As I said, most of the time around the island it seemed the waves would come at us from a 2′oclock position. If you just paddle like normal, you are going to fry quickly. Well, I’d had people tell me they use those waves, but I did not really understand. But in time I got it.

With the right timig you can get energy of both the FRONT and the back of the wave. When the wave comes in at you of course you were taught to edge into the wave. Yeah, this give you a stronger, more balanced position on the wave. Yet with a bit of practice you can let the wave pick you to it’s top and lean down the wave while moving across it’s face. Putting your weight down the wave lets gravity give you a bit of speed as you basically surf down across the wave. Then when you feel that you are not going to get anymore energy from the wave you drop over the top and edge the other way allowing the boat to accelerate down the back of the wave. Going down the back you can paddle as well to gain more speed. It takes time to get this right and read the rythem of the water. As you get “in the zone” you start seeing paths in the water. You look for the “low spot” and go to it to gain as much energy as you can going “down”. You see small paths across the top of big rollers that will lead your though the wave into the next trough. Sometimes I could just “Slalom” through the waves for quite some distance with minimal paddle strokes, used just to adjust angles, draw over crests, or pick up speed down the back of a wave. Before I knew it I was flying while all the while not really using much energy. And that was going INTO oncoming conditions.

Rough Stuff

Big waves can be scary!!!! Of course the problem is with how moving water acts as it runs into shallow areas or moves around and over coral and rocks, or when it hits the beach or a cliff. One day on the CTA trip we cut inside of some big rocks through a narrow pass to get into a big bay. The thing was, in this narrow pass the water was squirrelly. The waves were being built up by the quickly rising bottom. They wrapped around a big rock causing crossing flows. Waves rose and crashed over jagged tables of rock that sat just below the surface and were only exposed in the troughs of the waves. Each wave that landed on that table exploded into turbulence and mist. Along the shore boulders rose out of the water and created more bouncy, active water. It looked, like a washing machine. Well, if you are silly enough to go through, instead of going around, you better hold back and read the water. I sat back for bit until I could see a path. I could see how I could use waves wrapping around my side of the first big “island” to push me into an eddy behind the second flat table that was breaking the waves. Right there was a small but visible calm. From there you could jump out and go with the waves on the other side that would carry you right into the bay. However. . . If you went to close to land, the waves built up again and smashed into the boulders on the shore. If you stayed to far out you would be picked up by 12 footers and get tossed onto the table. You had to follow the path written in the carnage. In addition also needed to have a “high gear” to jump quickly from the big waves into the eddy before letting them push you into the rocky shore. Lastly you had to commit to your choice. For a short time, you could not just “change your mind”. Nope, you’re in now, no turning back. In active water you observe, make a choice, commit and do it. But in the end, if you don’t know what you are doing, you just stay the hell out of there and run outside.

Run Outside

It’s natural when you are new to the sport to want to stay close to shore. It’s pretty normal to feel the urge in conditions to get closer to shore. But as I mentioned above, the water can get freaky as it begins to be effected by land forms near shore. Suddenly waves rise over rocks that you may not see, they bounce off cliffs, build into breaking surf on the shallow shores. Currents form around and between landforms. The water just gets as we like to call it, “active”. Well, if the water is getting big, it’s getting more active near shore as well. During CTA there were often times when we had to reject that urge to run closer to shore. If the waves got bigger we had to read ahead and often decide to get further off shore. Yeah, it is a bit intimidating to be so far off shore, but when you get out there you realize the water calms down and becomes more predictable. Sometimes, you have to run outside.

Experience is worth a thousand classes. If you really want to learn solid boat control, the only way to really do it is to just get out there. Just don’t push too far beyond your capabilities. Sea kayaking in freaky water is fun, but it’s also bloody dangerous.