Wind and kayaking go hand in hand on many levels. Ask any non-paddler who has been victimized at a party by an avid kayaker’s seemingly endless store of near-misses and religious experiences - they’ll tell you that at the first sign that a full-blown gale is developing, turn and head for safe harbor.
Avoid paddling in whitecaps until you thoroughly appreciate their effect. Wind can:
upset a kayak and make rescue more difficult
make turning difficult
create unmanageable waves
prevent you from holding course
slow you down
On a more practical level for the paddler, wind and its effects come in all shapes and sizes. When practicing in strong winds, make sure it will blow you to shore if anything happens. Practicing in small surf is best for overall boat control practice.
How does the wind affect the kayak and paddler?
Paddling Into the Wind
Many times, the easiest. Your boat is easy to control, and the wind makes you feel like you are moving faster than you really are. Once the wind speed approaches 15 knots, whitecaps begin to appear, and the pressure of the wind on your paddle and body make the going much harder. Still, it may be easier than paddling across or downwind.
Solutions: Look for protection from the wind. In strong headwinds, a feathered paddle offers much less resistance to the wind
Paddling Downwind
Paddling straight or at an angle can be easy in a gentle breeze. As the wind increases and waves get bigger, boat handling becomes more difficult. As the boat comes down the face of the wave, the stern gets pushed around, leaving the kayaker sideways, or broached, to the wave. Correcting for this requires lots of effort, and can be very tiring and frustrating for the inexperienced and the veteran paddler.
Solutions: To counteract the broaching, tilt the boat to the side you are being turned toward and do a sweep stroke on that side. Rudders and skegs help in moderate situations, but lose effectiveness with larger waves.
If those methods are ineffective, use a rudder stroke when on the face of the wave, followed by a sweep stroke to try and keep on course. Back paddling on the face of the wave, and slowing your boat speed way down allows better control.
Paddling across the Wind (in beam seas)
Here again, the wind/wave action wants to push your stern downwind faster than the bow. This results in weathercocking, or turning up into the wind.
Solutions: When paddling across a wind, tilt the upstream edge toward the wind, and if necessary, do a forward sweep on that side. Extend the paddle on the upwind side for more leverage. Rudders/skegs help in moderate conditions.
One can also ferry across the wind. By pointing upwind of your destination, you paddle at an angle to the wind/waves, balancing your forward speed and the effect of the wind so that you cross laterally, rather than perpendicular to the wind.
Wind/Waves Against the Current
The further the wind blows across the water (fetch) the bigger the waves are. The current flowing the opposite direction pushes the waves closer together, making them steeper, sometimes causing them to break. As the speed of the current or wind increases, the seas become more chaotic. This can result in areas of big swell and/ or breaking waves, one form of tide rips.
Solution: You should anticipate and avoid these conditions, or have excellent bracing/rescue skills when venturing into areas with strong tidal currents.
Surf Techniques
If you plan to explore the outer coast, want to improve your skills, or just plain want to have fun, learning how to leave and land on the beach through surf sharpens your bracing skills, improves your overall boat control tremendously, and gives you more confidence on the water.
Surf Bracing Feedback
In order to truly enjoy, or at least survive, the surf zone, one must practice bracing under pressure. Evaluating your progress can be a mystery without the help of a competent instructor. There are a few things to keep in mind as you are preparing for yet another wet exit in the zone:
Wave/Kayak Dynamics
Control Factors
Beginning Practice
What Happened?
Wave/Kayak Dynamics
Wave/kayak dynamics are very simple: the wave and the kayak on the wave are both moving towards shore. The water is not moving. The wave is shoving your kayak across the top of the water towards the beach (hopefully). Therefore, in relation to the kayak, the water is flowing from the beach out to sea.
The first thing to learn about current is to tilt your kayak (not necessarily your body) away from the oncoming current. In this case, you must tilt the kayak away from the beach, and toward the wave. That way, you skip across the water, instead of catching the shoreside edge, and tripping over “current” moving off the beach. Tilting your kayak means presenting the bottom of the kayak towards, or “mooning” the beach.
Control in the surf zone requires awareness of the waves and their patterns, good and timely bracing, and the above-mentioned mooning. Low braces, high braces, and a good rudder stroke are your friends while on a wave.
Practice
Wear a helmet! Practice is best on a flat, gently sloping beach devoid of rocks, with a small break, where swimming would not be a major endeavor. Paddle out to just inside the closest break where it is deep enough that you won’t hit your head on the sand. This is the most fun way (besides river kayaking) to improve your skills that we know of.
Resist the urge to power out through the break just yet. Turn your boat sideways and let the waves break on, or just before they get to you. Moon the beach, and brace on the wave.
Evaluating yourself gets easier after a few swims. Pay attention to HOW you (and others) flip:
Fast and towards shore or slow and away from shore
Fast - you didn’t moon enough, or too late, and you tripped over your shoreside edge. In big, steep waves, the break can slap you over when it hits your body, no matter how much you moon. Here, bury your head in the breaking wave while you brace and bring the boat almost upside down. When the wave breaks, it will right your boat.
Slow - you mooned too much, your paddle was not in a flat bracing position, or you went over the top of the wave and got caught with too much lean and no brace on the backside.
Common mistakes:
Using a high brace on a small wave: Use low braces unless the waves are steep and over your head.
Brace is too close to the boat: Extend it a bit for more leverage/ support.
Paddle is vertical: this is a downward stroke, not a backstroke.
Expect to be scared, frustrated, and then elated when it all comes together. The perseverance will make you a better paddler.
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