Hello new to kayaking

black parrot paddling
Here’s a great area instructor:



http://www.blackparrotpaddling.com/



You can also check with Riverside Kayak, posted in the first response above.

what an ambassador of the sport!

– Last Updated: Oct-31-12 4:12 PM EST –

Willi - you had better pray you never make a mistake. Because then you'll have to direct your contempt back toward yourself.

cool thanks
Great just joined the GLKayakers yahoo group. thanks

LOTS of info - readily available
Look at that, plenty of info, all powered by Google

Willi, dry v wet
Willie must have run out of coffee this morning. To the OPer, you are not responsible for not knowing what you don’t know.



I congratulate you on two things. One is making it to shore wearing the clothing you had on. There is a reason that the Girl Scouts used to make us show we could get off jeans, shoes and shirt (had to have buttons) in the water in under 2 minutes before we could go out in a canoe.



The other is realizing that the correct solution was to get some help. It can be quite surprising how many people don’t do that part.



As to the drysuit/wetsuit thing… dry suits and good dry wear are pricey as hell and I can assure you that the wetsuit will look a ton better to your budget. And it is correct that a good surfing wet suit (better than the basic paddling farmer john) can get you into pretty cold temps, coupled with the ability to quickly re-enter your boat and with wind blocking layers on top depending on the wet suit.



Also, cold weather paddling means a hood, better gloves and good booties regardless of whether the basic layer is a wet suit or a dry suit. People who have been paddling a while have acquired all that stuff and tend to forget it. But when you are just starting out, those 20 to 60 dollar items can really add up.



There are people on this board who do quite well in a wet suit into winter, but if you are considering a major investment it is important to make sure that those recommendations are coming from people with similar habits to yours. So someone who is using a surf ski aggressively, for example, is probably generating a lot more heat than you are likely to on a casual paddle. Someone who is training for racing may be as well.



You also have to be conscious of the specifics of your environment. If you were to paddle right thru the winter, you are talking water temperatures under 40 degrees in lakes and streams, and I suspect under 50 nearer shore in any of the Great Lakes. Depending on your readiness and interest in discomfort, you could be looking at a perfect sunny day for paddling with air temps in the high teens before any wind chill effect. Everyone is different, but most people you talk with who have tried taking a swim in those conditions are going to come back saying that the dry suit was a much better idea.



A lot of this comes down to when you want to hang up the kayak. As far as paddling with others, I think you’ll find no lack of meetup groups including folks who want to paddle right through the winter. But you may want to set your own parameters about what level of preparation is safe. Our smaller group locally has a no drysuit-no paddle with the pod after Thanksgiving rule. But we see folks out there that obviously do not adhere to that idea - and read about some of them in the newspaper unfortunately.



Br ready to be surprised a lot, and just take time to check out used sources etc. You haven’t even gotten to the foam core paddle part yet - a moment which has sent many people to learn how to use a Greenland paddle that they can make themselves.



It is a great activity, and you will find you are within reach of some very good kayaking.

Hang it up

– Last Updated: Oct-31-12 6:27 PM EST –

The guy is responding much more nicely than you are.

Cowboy rescue
Google it.

soon enough…

– Last Updated: Oct-31-12 7:38 PM EST –

Most classes would start with a paddle float. As awkward as a paddle float reentry is, it is effective in the relatively calm waters a beginner should be in. Then one can progress to putting less weight on the float which leads them to a cowboy reentry. Starting right off with a cowboy may work for a few but most will get very tired quickly trying.

And of course going out with a buddy or several and getting an assist is way easier yet.

Black Parrots LLC

– Last Updated: Oct-31-12 8:39 PM EST –

Ron and Susie Smith stay down south six months a year including all of the winter months. Pool sessions now run by Rob Taylor of Expanding Horizons who used to instruct w. Black Parrots.

Celia is right
You are being way too aggressive. He is a Michigan paddler. We should be helping him out rather than telling him he is lazy.

How arrogant …
I learned ocean sailing without Internet and telephone… Just read some used books about sailing, talked to people, crewed on several boats, etc…

Did a lot of mistakes, but I had the attitude like demonstrated by the OP… Admit mistakes and learn from it…

Oh yes, even 55 years ago arrogant attitudes like this one were not uncommon, however they had no Internet to hide…Hence we dealt with it right then and there …

You survived your foolishness!
Thank God. The problem is, in the beginning we don’t know what we don’t know. If I can make a suggestion, order a copy of Sea Kayaker magazine’s “Deep Trouble”, a compendium of articles from the safety column in Sea Kayaker magazine from over the years. You just learned some important lessons the hard way. A lot of people in your situation have wound up dead. The #1 cause of death in sea kayaking? Hypothermia. Dress for the swim. 3mm neoprene farmer johns, or, in colder climbs, a drysuit. Take a class. Learn a repertoire of “rescues”. You (and your wife and kids) will be glad you did! Glad to hear you made it. Welcome to the club. Remember, we’re always between swims. :wink:



http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Kayakers-Deep-Trouble-Magazine/dp/0070084998

No cotton for cold-water paddling

– Last Updated: Oct-31-12 11:35 PM EST –

Period!

You found out the hard way. I also found out cotton can be dangerous even on land, when I was 19 and got caught in a very cold spring rainstorm while bicycling in jeans. First of all, the cotton clothes sag horribly when saturated. My jeans were practically falling off my hips. Second, wet cotton is actually colder than NO clothes whatsoever if there's any wind. Third, even if the sun comes out in full and you're safe on land, wet cotton takes forever to dry.

Wetsuit or drysuit, or something else--just don't paddle in cotton unless you're in a hot part of the country, in warm water. I take it you were wearing a PFD, because that helps hold some warmth to your torso.

Back to your question about practicing, you can supplement live instruction with good videos. For not much $$, those can provide really useful advice. I wouldn't rely on videos or books alone, though.

Good luck finding a pool to practice in. What I'm finding is that many municipalities are so strapped in budget that they are cutting back hours or even closing public facilities.

Cowboy rescue and newbies

– Last Updated: Nov-01-12 8:48 AM EST –

I have been out with one group where a relative newbie managed to not only perform a cowboy rescue successfully, but was vertical, dry and skirted faster than anyone who went with a re-enter and roll. It was a recovery exercise off an island in the Bar Harbor area - the coach found some nice swells and ordered everyone into the water for a self-rescue.

But this guy was a young, truly lithe person. He was far more agile and possessed far better balance than most people, let alone the boomer paddlers that fill out so many classes.

What makes the cowboy hard for many new paddlers - as was true for a newer paddler on this board who has been sharing his concerns about his fit in a Tempest recently - is the balance it takes to climb from where you can easily get over the boat to get positioned back into the cockpit. So they either start from close behind the cockpit where it is a bear to haul the torso over the height of the boat, or they start from further back and have to make multiple tries because of capsizing. Either way, their first impression of the Cowboy is that it is a very tiring way to self-rescue. It usually takes time and practice to make it easy.

That said, it is the least accessory-dependent self rescue of the lot, and for that reason alone should be in everyone's skills kit.

Responsibility starts with the person

– Last Updated: Nov-01-12 2:21 PM EST –

Everyone IS ALWAYS responsible for
"" not knowing what you don't know""

Why do people think ignorance is a valid excuse ?

Being personally responsible for our own actions
is the utmost item involved with being anywhere.

Kudos to looking for advice, training, lessons,
- but it was done - after flipping/capsizing,
not before.

Nature takes prisoners.

do you…

– Last Updated: Nov-01-12 3:36 PM EST –

check traffic, crime reports and weather before driving to the market every time? One day not doing so could get you in trouble. You may instead use your best judgement then when you learn there are extra issues (more crime in some area than you realized) you take extra precautions.

I've taken extra precautions from the start with kayaking but only because I've done lots of other outdoor sports and ocean sports. If instead I just saw people having fun and the guy at the store just said "have fun" I might not know.

Just about every one of us has ventured into something that appeared very benign without extensive research. Normally it is indeed benign and other times we learn a lesson. To this day I often eat at a new restaurant without doing a lot of research first.

I only fault those that fail to learn anything from their experiences.

btw, he WAS personally responsible for his actions. He didn't blame anyone. He didn't just assume someone would pull is ass out of the fire. He successfully made it to shore then sought out how to improve.

knowing what you don’t know
sounds great in theory

Another very strange reply.

– Last Updated: Nov-01-12 4:39 PM EST –

You said

"Why do people think ignorance is a valid excuse?"

I can't find a single thing mentioned by the original poster, nor anything said by others in this discussion that this statement might legitimately be applied to.

THANKS

– Last Updated: Nov-01-12 4:51 PM EST –

I'll re-post what I said again
- in case you would like to repeat, again.

"Why do people think ignorance is a valid excuse?"

Ignorance doesn't cut it in a court of law,
on the water, on land or in the sky gliding/flying.

Some might say:
You survived your foolishness!

Pushing 50 and way to fat
watched a pnet video and it took about half a dozen false starts before I got it. Wife did it in her tsunami 140 on about the third try.

Of course in my ignorance I wasn’t paying anyone to tell us we couldn’t learn it that way.