Any elderly kayakers with limitations?

Downsize

– Last Updated: Aug-16-11 3:34 AM EST –

With bum back, arthritis, jumper knee, loss of muscle, and lousy balance, I went back to more stable, shorter and lighter surfskis. The same for OC-1's: shorter and lighter. I now wear a pfd too, and spend more time brushing up on my technique based on the latest info I can find. Yes, I had to re-learn how to paddle using longer, lighter and narrower canoe paddles, but shorter and wider kayak wing paddles. Use paddles with more flex in the shaft too.

I’m 72…
with spinal cancer (a nuisance), but actively paddle every week, mostly ocean, bay, and lakes. As a concession to safety I now paddle my SOTs more often than my SinKs, surf launch in milder conditions, and always wear my PFD and carry a VHF, which I confess I didn’t always use to do.



A bigger problem for me is getting the boats on and off the van roof.



Regards…

Rolling
Angell, thanks especially for your comments on rolling. Whenever I bring this up I hear, “I’ve taught 80-year-old ladies to roll! Anybody can roll! Age has nothing to do with it!” My instinct based on past experience is that it only takes one second to cause a shoulder injury that can be permanent, and that rolling has a high potential for causing such an injury in an older person when the joints are already compromised.



Being rescued requires essentially the same joint flexibility and strength as self-rescue. So if self-rescue, being rescued, and rolling aren’t possible, that indicates a radical safety change for an older person.

Depends on the approach

– Last Updated: Aug-17-11 10:36 AM EST –

It is less difficult to damage anything learning the usual layback roll with a GP. There just isn't any time that weight is being used, even if the roll is executed badly, similar to what happens at moments with a big arse Euro blade and an approach that comes closer to elements of the C-to-C.

But I suppose unless you have tried it, it's not easy to see.

I’m pushig 70
and have had both hips replaced. Looks like I’ll soon be selling my excellent paddling, good-for-all-waters Caribou simply because I need something with a more generous cockpit and in the sub-40 pound range. The Epic 16 comes close but I don’t like the rudder system. The Placid Boat Works Rapid Fire might be the ticket though I’ve never paddled it or any other solo canoe.

build/have built?
A good composite shop should be able to modify the cockpit on a composite boat. Other lightweight options might be building a skin-on-frame or stich & glue with a custom cockpit.



http://www.capefalconkayak.com/f1.html



http://www.pygmyboats.com/mall/PINGUINOnew.asp

Don’t know about NH, but in the SE,
it’s not easy to find a “good composite shop.” They mostly work on powerboats and Corvettes. I’ve laid up an entire kayak rim, but it’s not easy. It’s time consuming, detailed work.

Modifying the 'Bou’s cockpit
would change the character of the boat. The Caribou is an excellent sea boat and, with the exception of the Mariner Coaster, the best wind-wave surfer that I’ve ever paddled. The ocean cockpit with its well-fitted thigh braces helps a skilled paddler control the boat. And the boat weighs 50 pounds; I want some thing 40 pounds or less.Not a huge cockpit, just something where I can pull my knees up now and then.

One suggestion
Might be good to plan on using a stirrup for re-entries. I know someone who did this for his not-old-but-pudgy wife.



As I get older, injuries are more likely and take longer to recover from. I have become more conservative about having lots of “margin” from both the physical/endurance and safety standpoints.



The good part is that judgment only gets better, and I know what works for my body better than I did when I was 25.



Warming up, which was always important for me, is even more important now. Also, cooldown.

Let people decide that for themselves
Inevitably there must come a time when a person decides, “I just no longer have whatever it takes to roll a kayak.” Strength, coordination, balance, technique, whatever. Or “I have limitations or injuries that make rolling unwise.”



It’s important to respect an older individual’s decision that rolling or reentry is impossible or unwise, and not pressure a person to try some other way of doing it. It may be terribly difficult for YOU to damage anything, but let people make that judgment call for themselves.



My question is about how people adapt once they know they’ve passed that point.



Read Angell’s post again and see if it makes sense to you. It makes total sense to me—especially “not allow younger paddlers to encourage us toward exceeding our possible limitations.” When you can no longer walk, sit, get up out of a chair, lie down, or raise your hand without pain, things change. I believe that kayaking can continue in those conditions, but in a different way.


Stirrup
A stirrup reentry requires exactly the same joint flexibility as without a stirrup. It’s easier to get up on the deck than to move from the paddle float into the cockpit. Your hip joints have to open wide enough to have one leg in the cockpit and the other over the paddle float. Arthritis causes joint swelling, bone spurs, and frozen joints that can severely reduce range of motion.

Aging and doing anything
Rotator cuff surgery on a blown shoulder is a minimum of 6 mos (to get back in your boat) to one year of strength and endurance (paddling effectively). It’s a long time to pay for learning to roll, but I did. As we age, we take longer to heal for any injury. It makes sense to choose our risks carefully. But along with choosing risks carefully, it is critical to stretch, lift and do balance exercises on a regular basis–use it or loose it comes to mind. We are all different and make our choices accordingly–exercise, diet, lifestyle, etc–and it all makes a difference. The god of aging knows no favorites. Not for the feint of heart.

Age and reality
Mobility and flexibility added to a shorter range of motion creep up as we age. Internal problems can also appear as I found out today. I do agree I listen to what my body is telling me now, than when I was a lot younger. I carry sponsons in the kayak. They make getting in and out of the kayak easier than the paddle float and add beam so you won’t go over again. I haven’t really used them in a real situation, only practice. I watch the weather and the surface conditions more and just don’t go if it doesn’t look right. There is always tomorrow. Tom

A lot of good points . . .

– Last Updated: Aug-17-11 1:22 AM EST –

A few things I've done over the past nine months since the injury:

The shoulder injury added to existing comparatively minor back pains, to the extent that I didn't even try to paddle the touring boat this year - it's even more difficult to get in and out of the cockpit. The whitewater boat - easier to enter and exit was used minimally, and I have used the SOT fishing kayak just to paddle.

The SOT is easier to get in and out of. If the boat were capsized, it's much easier in self-rescue: you just climb back into the SOT.

Another thing I have been considering, respecting aging, is paddle design. When I began paddling whitewater last year, I had been paddling for years with touring paddles. By the time I was able to afford a whitewater paddle, I had done some river trips with a longer touring paddle. I allowed myself to get talked into a much shorter paddle than I think would have been ideal for me.

Beyond the fact of being used to touring paddles, these longer paddles have more moment per stroke, considering the paddle is sweeping farther out from the hull than a shorter paddle. Thus, less effort is needed per stroke - which puts less strain on an older person's frame. Granted, there are good reasons for shorter paddles in whitewater, but I found myself having to make more rapid corrections: strokes and braces, closer to the boat and requiring more effort than with my longer paddle.

This is to say, given that I will be able to return to whitewater after healing the shoulder, I may get a longer whitewater paddle.

To reinforce other's comments here, I do have a VHF marine radio for off-coast use and always carry a first aid kit. Having had a DVT after a stent placement, I carry a sealing "pillbox" (small waterproof tube with a gasket screw-on cap) on a chain with my car keys. It contains two nattokinase capsules (a natural clot-dissolving agent) and this stays with me when I'm paddling.

Finally, I decided that just attending classes of touring boat rescue techniques is not enough. As in the whitewater training, when I am better, my wife and I will get out in the water and practice rescue techniques with our touring boats until we have them down as good as possible.

I would not want to be in a predicament like the jet skiers I encountered a few weeks ago in the middle of a Kissimmee lake. I was with my brother in his powerboat and we were headed in to shore with a fast-approaching storm behind us. On the way, we encountered a couple of young Latino guys - one in the water beside a capsized jet ski, the other sitting on his jet ski beside him and both looking confused about what to do next, unable to respond to our questions.

I thought it would be worth it to try a sort-of "reverse" T-rescue and had my brother throttle back and approach the jet ski amidships. I hung over the bow and grabbed the side of the craft. My first effort was to no avail: it seemed really swamped, but then it was easily righted on the second effort. To my surprise, the water drained out; he got on and started it. We continued on our way and I hope that kid learned whatever it was he needed to know to avoid getting himself into future trouble.

As an earlier poster stated, one thing we older folks should have going for us is better judgment with increased wisdom.

The same
If I have a layoff from activity it’s very hard to play catch up. I just try to keep moving so I can keep moving.

This the first year I’ve felt my age somewhat, 63, and it’s hard to back off… But necessary, and necessary to keep moving… The aches and pains and injuries that used to disappear after abit, don’t go away anymore they just hang about waiting to be annoyed a little more before they crank up. The forty year old kiddies that want you to come along at their rate of travel… well… I hope judgement kicks in.

2 answers
Waterbird, about 5 years ago SeaKayaker magazine ran an accident report about a 70-ish guy who died off the coast of Southern California. He’d been a club stalwart but had let a lot of things go – needed a new wetsuit, a new VHF radio, and a roll if I remember right. Arrived late at a launch site (car trouble as he’d put off doing something it needed), missed his friends, went out anyway, capsized in high winds, couldn’t execute a self-rescue with paddle float. And died. It was a very poignant story. (A lot of am-I-my-brother’s-keeper sentiments among his friends, I think.) So that’s one answer. The guy was losing his skills and his friends noticed but didn’t exactly gang up on him and go with him to get him in a new wetsuit and to buy a new VHF radio. So one thing we should think about is how we as paddling friends might help out our older peers.



The other answer: a woman in my paddle club was no longer able to reenter her touring kayak even with a stirrup. She had a hip replacement. Eventually sold the tourer and bought a nice composite 14-foot SOT. I don’t know whether she’s happy with that boat or not. She’s was learning to use it last summer. But changing your equipment – as others here have already pointed out – is one way to go.

G in NC (old but still doing an easy sweep roll!)

I weighed in above but feel compelled

– Last Updated: Aug-21-11 1:33 PM EST –

to post again.
Age is what you make of it !

If you are lucky enough to not get cancer, or any other illness that is out of your control, and you are eating properly, exercising daily, keeping your weight exactly as it should be, you should see no change at all in your paddling style and habits.
Throw in some good sex every other night, and you will still feel as if you're in your 40's
Oh, and a new knee helps a bit too !
jack L

My concern with your post…

– Last Updated: Aug-18-11 3:50 PM EST –

Your post pre-judges the likelihood of someone being able to learn a roll with a GP based on their age and condition. I would not have responded if it appeared that you had tried it yourself and found that your personal health etc made it not possible, or if it appeared that you were personally familiar with how a GP roll works compared to the traditional one taught with a Euro.

The OP was asking about peoples' personal experience, to my read of the post.

But as far as I can tell you haven't tried this. So I disagree with advising others that they shouldn't due to age etc.

I can agree with the part of your post where you say that older paddlers should be cognizant of their limitations and not allow themselves to be pushed into things that may be a problem for them. There are increasingly days where I observe rather than take one more shot at a standing wave or a ferry across current because some body part has taken all it will without risking injury, for example. I play violin, so my bar for may-hurt-myself is higher than many. But there are assumptions imbedded in the details following that just are not always so.

Interestingly, I know enough about glawson, a poster below, to guess that her experience might make a liar of me here. But there may be other things that were in play there too - and knowing her background, would figure it was experience-based advice. I know that she has spent more time working on her greenland skills than all but a few paddlers I have met.

Every other night! Does Nanci know
about this?

Anticipatory or actual?
It can be hard to draw the line. We tend to pull out the lighter weight boats more often, including when going into conditions that strictly speaking supposed are imperfect for a lighter weight layup. But it is just SO much easier at the end of the paddle to be putting them back on top of the car. We limit back to back days of big paddles more than several years ago and allow for more easy days to recover than before. Etc.



Is this a direct accommodation to age or an early change to head off more serious changes? Hard to tell. But it’s all in the name of getting older.