Skills and Safety
Paddling on a large body of water requires more skill than poking around a small, protected lake. Most guided trips are geared for the beginner, but make sure you ask when you sign up. As you begin to venture out on your own or with friends, clubs, etc, onto more open water, it is important that at the very least, you have the following skills:
You should know how to
rescue yourself and others
control your boat with and without the rudder/skeg
avoid dangerous situations
stay put when the conditions warrant it
People Hazards
Power boats, tugboats, ships - never try to pass in front of one, or between a tug and what it is towing. Make yourself visible, but never assume right-of-way, or that they can see you!
Survival Skills
When paddling in wilderness situations, it is best to know how to administer aid on the spot, and have the means to contact outside help. First Aid and CPR classes, available through the Red Cross, Mountaineers, etc., and how to avoid and treat Hypothermia are a must.
Signal flares and VHF radios are good for summoning help, but do not make you any safer - they only help you when things have gotten out of hand.
If you are going to be on the coast, you must know how to negotiate the surf. This requires practice, because the surf zone is particularly dangerous. You must know how to time your entry and exit through the surf zone, and how to brace when you need to. Also be aware that landing spots are few and far between, and without proper planning, you can be in for a long paddle on an open coast, with no place to land.
In other words, don't take any trip lightly.
Boating Gear
Secure Buoyancy, bulkheads or bags fore and aft -Sound Hull, Deck, and Spraycover -
Lifejacket and whistle
Flares, on your person
Bilge Pump
Self-rescue Paddle Float
Tow line
Good Paddle and a Spare, on deck
Wet or Drysuit
Rain Gear, Hat, and Spare Clothing in a dry bag
Chart and current and/or tide info
Sunblock, lip block, hat and sunglasses
Proper Dress
Proper thermal protection is needed to prevent, or at least slow, rapid heat loss. After 10-15 minutes of immersion, most people lose the use of their hands, arms, and legs due to the lack of blood being pumped to the extremities. This makes any kind of rescue procedure difficult if not impossible.
Dress for the water temp, not the air!
GoreTex drysuits are comfortable even when it's warm out. You can always wet the outside of the suit to cool off.
Wetsuits, w/paddling jacket or dry top, are flexible outfits for warmer or marginal conditions, but never as comfortable or warm as a drysuit.
Drysuits
The outfit of choice for cold water/weather or longer immersion times. People have survived long periods of drifting with these on. There are Gore-tex and other breathable drysuits that work really well. They feature latex wrist and neck seals with a front or back entry zipper. Most now include waterproof socks, which you will greatly appreciate!
If you are doing lots of long crossings, or open ocean paddling with lots of surf entries/landings, especially in cool rainy weather, you should consider a drysuit. The suit itself does not offer any inherent warmth - so synthetic or wool layers underneath are necessary to retain body heat. Avoid any cotton or denim fabrics. Get a relief zip!
Wetsuits
Good for short immersion times. Paddling wetsuits are not as thick as dive suits, making them more comfortable to paddle in, but offering less thermal protection. A wetsuit works by offering a layer of insulation, and also by warming a thin layer of water between your body and the suit. There are full body suits with varying thicknesses of neoprene that can be comfortable to paddle in, and limit the amount of water that enter.
To make them effective, you must limit the amount of water that enters your suit. If you have a constant exchange of new water, your body is working hard to reheat each new batch, leaving less warmth for your body core.
You can limit this exchange by making sure the suit is snug around the ankles, and by wearing a paddling jacket or drytop, with adequate insulated clothing (synthetic, fleece, wool, etc.) underneath. The drytop keeps almost all the water out, but allows less air exchange while paddling, causing overheating and perspiration. On cold days this is fine, but if you overheat easily, it doesn't take much exercise to work up a good sweat.
There are GoreTex drytops and paddling jackets that do an excellent job of keeping you warm and dry, while allowing some of your body heat to escape. A paddling jacket with snug neck and wrist closures is next best, allowing more water, but offering more ventilation while paddling.
Footwear
For many experienced paddlers, wetsuit booties are the best thing to wear while in the boat. Around camp, it is more comfortable to wear boots, sneakers, or sandals. Booties or boots made of neoprene are the footwear of choice for many paddlers. They are snug, provide insulation when your feet are wet, and give you more foot room in your kayak.
Rubber boots are handy for walking in mud flats, but have many drawbacks. They are cumbersome getting in and out of your boat, and are really useless when you are in the water. Many times, they must be removed before you can perform a rescue, if they haven't fallen off already. Use neoprene boots instead.
Sandals work for some people, but do have their drawbacks. They are not as warm as booties, and do not offer any protection for the sides of your feet while walking over/ between sharp, barnacle-encrusted rocks. Wearing synthetic or waterproof socks makes them much more useful. Sneakers, reef walkers, etc. work with socks under them and offer varying degrees of protection and warmth.
Hypothermia
The greatest single danger to sea kayakers. Hypothermia is the lowering of the core body temperature. If allowed to drop too far, the body cannot generate enough heat on its own to rewarm. Immersion in cold water robs your body of heat 25 times faster than air.
The average salt water temperature in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands ranges from 46° in the wintertime to 53° in the summer. Fresh lake and river water are much colder in the winter!
Symptoms:
Intense shivering
Loss of coordination
Slurred speech
Confused mental state
Shivering is the body's way of fine-tuning its temperature. Light shivering does not necessarily mean you are hypothermic. If it becomes more violent, and is accompanied by loss of coordination, slow and labored movements, mild confusion, and inability to walk a 30' line properly, the person is in the early stages of hypothermia.
These symptoms become more severe as the victim's temp drops further, until unconsciousness, and usually heart failure, occurs.
Treatment
The best treatment of hypothermia is prevention. Once a person becomes severely hypothermic, it is impossible to rewarm them in the field. Get them to emergency care pronto!
For early hypothermia, you can add heat to the body core by applying warm packs to the groin, neck, and armpit areas; by disrobing the victim and a volunteer and placing them in a sleeping bag together so that the victim can use some of the volunteer's heat (although this is extremely slow and inefficient).
Prevention
Drink fluids before & during activity
Stay in reasonably good condition
Dress properly
Eat properly before your trip
Rest during your trip
Avoid exhaustion!
Eat adequately to replenish energy stores during your trip
Paddling Trips
Until you learn more, and build your confidence and skills to the point where you can safely explore on your own, it is best to go on trips with more experienced paddlers, either friends you trust, paddle clubs, or commercial outfitters. This is a good way to learn different areas, and the vagaries of the sea environment with people who (hopefully!) will not put you in over your head.
Comments