After a long paddle I experience a persistent rocking motion when I lie down to sleep, the morning after, and sometimes just while sitting. This doesn’t bother me - it can actually be pleasant to re-live being in my kayak as I’m falling asleep, but when I mentioned it to my spouse he said he’d never experienced anything like this. I was surprised because I’ve had this my entire life, and also with other, less pleasant forms of transport, like long car trips - that makes me feel a whooshing forward momentum as I fall asleep, much less fun. When I turned to Mother Google I learned about Mal de Debarquement, though for me it’s not a sickness, only a sensation. But, I do get motion sickness in airplanes and in the back seat of a car without Dramamine. Anyone else have this?
I don’t have it…
But after working one long three day “on the water” boat show I swore the restaurant we were at was floating.
Ah yes, the “getting off sickness”. I’ve experienced it, and I’ve been told by others they do as well. I otherwise don’t easily get motion sick, and the MDD isn’t all that unpleasant for me either.
For me it’s most likely after prolonged paddling in larger waves.
I get it even after a couple of hours on a lake with 5mph winds!
If do a long, (all day) paddle in either the canoe or my kayak in wavy conditions, for several hours afterward I have a gentle sensation of going up and down
Comparing notes with my wife; she also gets it
I get it too. Usually it’s gone by the next morning.
Looks like people differ in triggered levels of waviness. I get it but it takes more than 5 mph wind riffles to do it. A long day in more wind, or no wind but swell, definitely results in that wavy feeling for hours afterward. For me, the sensation disappears by next morning if not earlier.
I LIKE the feeling!
I normally do not get motion sickness, However, if I read when riding in a car, that will make me feel sick.
I had it once after a 4 hr paddle with following seas that gave a corkscrew motion to the kayak. It lasted overnight, but was not too bad. Had it once again after a rough night in steerage on a Hurtigruten ship heading up the west coast of Norway. Got off the next day but was intermittently rocking for several days after that one, and not in a good way. Glad to see there’s a name for that…
I’ve gotten that canoeing, sailing, and kayaking. And I really like it and think it feels cool. I wouldn’t call it “Mal” at all. But it goes away after only a few occurrences. After the first two or three days in bouncy conditions, I don’t get it any more.
I don’t get it in my rocker.
Mild and enjoyable cases, just lasting that night until bedtime from prolonged bobbing about on moderate to rough waters in kayak. Had it last 3 days once after a very dynamic North Atlantic encounter aboard USN destroyer for 3 plus days. We pulled back into Newport missing lots of exterior paint, ladders, life boats and suffering many crew injuries. First day of weather was fun from novelty, second tiresome from effort to move and rest safely within the pitching and yawing. Third day was please let me just live.
I’m getting the bobbing sensation now, sitting in an armchair, after a moderate length paddle on relatively still water. Guess it’s appropriate that I’m reading about paddling on here…
Not on the kayaks. Back in an earlier time, yes sort of, after a week on the sail boat, on the ocean, the sense was there where it didn’t seem right that the ground wasn’t moving.
Andy, a guy I worked with served on a destroyer. He had a photo taken from above the ship as it plowed through huge swells. Only the stacks were above water. Sounds like your experience.
Spent a week on a sailing yacht on some seas… Got off the yacht and went to a restaurant on shore and the restaurant started rocking…
I got the pleasant sensation after sailing. My father in law was in the navy and said some sailors would get land sick. They’d get ‘no-motion’ sick/nausea when they got to land. That sounds like some real “mal” to me.
He Rex,
I was in the navy and that isn’t “land sickness” it is a “hang over” !
I was in the Army and experienced some of that land sickness.
How expensive is this with a fancy name like “Mal de Debarquement”?
Anything French costs double. Bien sur!