Ha, nothing like a group of spectators when you are practising self-rescues, especially the graceful and elegant heel-hook or scramble 
I am up in Maine and I do most of my training down at the local pond so I know exactly how those shows go. I’ve found that the best thing for entertaining spectators is to try and learn a new type of roll, it’s either going to put off people from kayaking for life or it’s going to make them hurriedly put on their PFD and paddle away quickly.
When practicing alone, usually someone with good intent calls the police or coast guard or fire department. At the very least they come to your aid and be skeptical that you are practicing. I will go to the trouble of calling the local agency and tell them I will be practicing when alone so they dont rush out when someone calls.
That is a good practice on your part of advising the local authorities! Also, if there are others around such as fishermen or people hanging out or hiking, let them know you are practicing. They usually stop to enjoy the show and tell me how crazy I am.
I haven’t seen max3732 repost from May 29th. That being their first post to the forum so I feel ok hijacking the thread a little as it has a lot of good information and I have been following it for several weeks.
I have a canoe 14’7” and fairly stable. I’m not as concerned with capsize and reentry, but I would like to be able to do that also. I’m more interested as was the OP of getting out to cool off and getting back in fairly easily.
My idea is I already carry a telescoping aluminum pole for poling and pushing thru shallows and rocks rather than beating op my paddle or getting out and lining. The pole is about 4’ retracted and 7’ extended. The canoe is about 3’ at the thwart and I could rig something quick to extend the pole off the side and make a jury-rigged pontoon to a float I could slip over the outboard end. I was thinking of a couple boat fenders attached to a PVC frame. Nothing too big something quick to setup and take down.
The canoe has front and back air bag flotation and I carry a hand bilge pump and a scoop bailer. So in a capsize situation I would want to be able to do it from the water also. Everything is always secured in the canoe and after righting it if needed I will be sitting high enough to bail.
I already have a foot loop I can loop around a thwart for getting in with someone bracing the other side. I’m just wondering about a pontoon to do that job.
I have watched the videos of people filling water bags and weighting the far side of the canoe. It just seems simpler to float the side up rather than weight the opposite side as water has no weight in the water so the canoe has to tilt a lot to bring the water into play.
There might be something better than boat fenders I just don’t know what that would be? 
I’ve been monitoring the conversation but haven’t posted in a while. Hopefully the good suggestions will continue to come in and you won’t hijack my question too much!
That looks like it would work pretty well. With the paddle float do you think someone obese would be able to get inside? How much weight would that support?
The paddle float like my idea all depends on how long the arm is and how buoyant the float is. Of course also how well the arm is attached to the boat. For a larger person they still have to pull or push themselves up and out of the water like getting out of the side of a pool. If they can’t do that then they would need a step and a loop of rope hanging over into the water to put your foot on works. Some larger people are strong and flexible others not so much.
This may all be taking place in terms of a rescue when the person is tired and the boat may have taken on water and a dozen other things working against them.
To help get back in my kayak with a stirrup: my stirrup is long enough to go around the combing of the rescuers kayak rim, then the stirrup goes over the top of my overturned and emptied kayak. Now when I step onto the stirrup the kayaks are held together from my weight putting tension on the stirrup. The rescuer doesn’t need to keep the kayaks together ( stirrups job), but must ensure the stirrup is and continues to be seated under their combing. The rest of the rescue is now common to other styles of getting in. By having the stirrup going over the top of the recuee kayak, this kayak is stabilized, but still needs the assistant to ensure that the kayak isn’t flipped back over when the swimmer is getting back in. Hope you can visualize this explanation.
I like the concept & how kayaks would be kept together, however I cannot imagine a situation where I would allow a stirrup to go around me (and my cockpit) while I am rescuing someone. Probably works great in calm water, but I prefer to practice how I would rescue in dynamic waters.
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I don’t know. Using the definition of obesity as a BMI over 30, am guessing bigger people go for SOTs since they’re easier to enter. Thus a paddle float rescue wouldn’t apply.
@kayakhank “I like the concept & how kayaks would be kept together, however I cannot imagine a situation where I would allow a stirrup to go around me (and my cockpit) while I am rescuing someone. Probably works great in calm water, but I prefer to practice how I would rescue in dynamic waters.”
My earliest instructor (John Dawson) had this set up ‘permanently’ mounted to his coaming. He was a compatriot of John Dowd and Brian Henry, even older than me. I saw it used in calm water and don’t know if it was impractical in dynamic waters.
My reluctance goes back to wanting to minimize lines in the water that “could” wrap around someone. It is all about ones comfort zone with the equipment we use.
Not clear on what you are saying? Paddle floats and rescue stirrups definitely are useful for SOTs.
Generally speaking, I see more less flexible/less in shape people paddling SOTs, thus if they are outside swim-to-shore distance, those folks need more tools to reenter their SOT if they cannot scramble aboard.
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We will definitely be using a SOT.
As far as the BMI. The last time he went in a kayak water entered through the drainage holes. So we had to plug the holes to try to keep the kayak from sinking.
I’m hoping getting some exercise kayaking and maybe swimming in the ocean will help. The problem was if he did get out in the water I didn’t know if I could get him back in since it was a struggle myself and I’m pretty fit.
I would be a little concerned with this method. With the rescuer wearing a spray skirt, how secure is your stirrup on their boat. Also, especially in rough water, how much of a tendency would there be for your stirrup to want to tip the rescuers boat toward you. If the stirrup comes loose, it will end up around the body of the rescuer, potentially slipping up toward their upper body and pulling them over.
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I am aware of the possibility of the stirrup coming dislodged from the coaming but once the load is applied to the stirrup ,it becomes seated into the coaming. I have not had the stirrup come out from under the coaming but I believe it could happen depending on coaming size and skirt being used. The rescuer still has to control both boats. I’m just letting you know of the way I do it. Like anything else in life , if you think you like an idea ,need to evaluate it/try it out.
Two boats with open cockpits like canoes or rec kayaks I could see a variation on @Steveey idea working. A loop of rope with a hook on the end that would lock in around the others gunwale or coaming and the weight of the climbing boater would pull the boats together and make the weight of the other boat and boater hold down the far side.
The rescuing boater wouldn’t have to lean out or hold the boats together in fact could just sit there. There would be no chance of looping him and having two in the water.
I like it and we boat together mostly her in the kayak and me in the canoe. I think I will make two, one for each boat and we can test the idea.
I had a little time so I looked thru my junk for a hook. This one came off an old strap binder I had with a rotten strap that broke. So I cut the strap off and opened the hook maybe half an inch. This is kind of just a proof of concept.
I tried the hook on both the OT Guide 147 canoe and the OT Trip 10 rec kayak. Both seemed to look like they would hook well and seemed strong. Then I measured the height of both boats and the Guide is about an inch taller, but maybe draws an inch more water. Ether way they are pretty close in height. The kayak is quite a bit narrower so if I made a simple loop that would be correct for entering the canoe the loop would be a little deep used the other way to enter the kayak.
I didn’t have time to build the whole thing tonight but when I get some time I will make a 3 rung rope ladder out of the loop with short pieces of PVC for the rungs and it should be worth a try.
If it holds the boats together and offers tipping protection that would leave the person in the rescue boat free to hold on to the far side of his boat with one hand and offer the other hand to the person entering to pull against.
We can call this (Bud’s Rescue Hook) BRH as (Hand of God) HOG was already taken. 
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I’ve never seen a stirrup rescue in any of the ACA classes I’ve attended. Nor have I seen anyone reenter a SOT in deep water (surfskis exempted). Just looked at Perception and Wilderness SOTs and see no rigging, so am unsure how using a paddle float would work.
I guess like all self-rescue techniques, practice it first in water that’s not over your head.
Many instructors don’t practice much with SOTs. Only reason I do is I like to fish from a SOT and so do lots of my friends so I try lots of different situations in different kayaks. L1 and L2 classes are often a mix of sea kayaks, rec kayaks, and SOTs. It means we all get to see lots more learning opportunities - especially when folks cannot scramble/Cowboy/Cowgirl the first time they try.