Best to keep some distance from walls
Same thing wiht ordinary sea walls here. I’ve learned to keep more to a midpoint between traffic and walls (yacht hulls, bridges, etc). I get the same wakes twice as they reflect, but they dont get me.
Attitude
"So, IHMO, posts that say to a beginner “boat wake? Yahoo! Just go surf 'em!” needs to be balanced by “but when in doubt, just poke your bow into them” … as well as your message of learn to manage wake so wake dosen’t manage you."
Sorry – as one of the “yahoo” posters I didn’t mean to disregard beginner concerns. It’s just that one’s attitude has a huge effect on how the wake will feel. If you think “Oh s___, a wake!” you’ll tighten up into a rigid lump and your boat will feel unstable. If you think “Cool! A wake!” you’ll be loose and relaxed and your boat will just let it roll on by. There’s no particular skill involved other than relaxing.
I think you need to be carefull with
wakes and try to head into them at first. Once you can handle that and you are more comfortable paddling them you can try different things with them. My wife and were very carefull when we saw a boat coming and would head into the wake. Now suffer a let down when a boat slows down for us. We will surf the wake and use it to get some more speed will also not even change our direction and take the wake side on. Just be carefull and have fun and stay safe.
Depends upon what you paddle…
In my race boat, all the headaches of a good paddle are caused by man made obstacles. Either the wake itself from power boats, usually no big deal, or bulk head reflecting earlier wakes and adding in to new wake creating clapotis and the washing machine surface texture that is a challenge in an unstable but potentially fast kayak. Or the cliff scenario posted earlier.
In a more sea worthy kayak, none of these are a concern and are actually a lot of fun. I have had a higher top speed in my 14’ hard chine boat than I’ve ever had in my so called faster race boats, of course their average speeds are higher at the end of the day.
With usual wake, I just let it ride underneath me no matter what angle it comes from. Add in some wind waves or reflected waves and a whole new dynamic is at play and I may find myself nosing into some of the bigger stuff at a small angle to remain sunny side up.
Puzzlepax
So learn to handle
the wakes in the race boats. Where I paddle the wakes just mostly get mixed in with what the wind’s doing, but I did manage to get buried about armpit-deep once by a big wake off a SWATH dinner cruise boat that caught me from the side as I was sitting on the crest of a wave from astern that I was in the process of missing. Good times!
this thread has been very kind…
…to power boaters, unlike some other past threads here. I’ve not had this happen lately but have been intentionally “buzzed” by boaters who altered their course to do so. One guy, frustrated when unable to swamp me, made repeated attempts.
“It is the absolute height of selfishness to expect other people to slow down because you haven’t taken the time, effort, and/or classes to learn how to handle a kayak.”
Regardless of whether you enjoy wakes or your skill levels, there is a safety factor for proximity.
In open water and in non-wake restricted boat lanes, yes, I’ll concur. You shouldn’t even be there if you can’t deal with big wakes.
But if you’re on a snaking narrow river (say, 25 to 30’ wide), I don’t think it’s selfish to appreciate it when a boater slows down to pass you, it’s just common sense.
In all fairness …
… I don’t know how this guy marketed himself to his friends … one of his friends said something like “some expert”. He seemed a little humbled when I talked to them … a brief encounter. From the little conversation we had, and listening to his friends, sounds like just someone wanting to get some friends interested in something he was into. He had his own boat, his friends were in a collection of rec boats and one SOT. He told me he had taken a few classes locally, and had recently learned to roll. Don’t think he tried to roll and failed … probably got a little excited and just bailed out. I had recently flunked a rolling class - only formal training I’ve taken - so I’d say he had more technical skills than I do.
Pretty much always paddle alone…
… for the same reasons. I know what I can handle, what pace I can keep. Nice to see other paddlers around, though.
… is the key, you’re right
To learn and gain confidence you need the right attitude, and being relaxed and not tense can make all the difference. Encouraging a beginner learning anything to relax and have confidence in ones gear is the first step. Reading this board, and where you folks take you boats gave me the confidence in my boat to know it can handle far more than I’ll put it through.
Once that’s out of the way, beginners can start learning to have confidence in themselves. And sometimes people have to be pushed in some way to make what may be a leap of faith… especially if it’s a basic or necessary skill.
How you push someone, and reading where they are at mentally at that moment, is also important … a key difference I think between a good coach\instructor\mentor\advice giver and a not so good one. When you’re a beginner, how do you know the difference? You have to know when to listen to those inner voices … one’s saying “the experienced folks are saying I gotta be able to take ANY boat wake from any direction, so I gotta take this 3 footer broadside.”, the other’s saying “I don’t know about this one … bigger than anything I’ve done before … and if I flip here, there’s another boat right behind this one … lotta boats here … maybe I’m in a chanel? I know I can take this one head on.”.
We’re all right to encourage beginners to relax and have confidence in their boats when it comes to boat wake … and to tell them that it’s a basic skill they need to learn … and that it’s not up to power boaters around you to make assumptions about your skill level and make accomodations regarding their speed, wake, etc … Rather it’s your responsibility to stay out of places where you’re not ready to go.
It just seemed to me that no one was saying BUT when you find yourself in a situation that pushes your skill level envelope and you’re too tense to surf this one, or your in a place that is beyond your skill level and a mistake here could endanager you or others, it’s OK to stick with what you have confidence in. You can always catch the next wave … er, wake.
Agree - well said
except a kayak is only as seaworthy as the paddler, and it’s hard to be more seaworthy than a surf rescue boat!
I wasn’t including surf rescue boats
or the CG’s 41 footers that were designed for the Columbia River Bar. LOL
When I said the kayak was more sea worthy, I wasn’t including the paddler - that’s the part of the equation that can screw everything up.
In the absence of paddler mistakes, a good sea kayak is eminently sea worthy.
The only time my boat turns turtle is if I am intentionally rolling, or I did something wrong. Even with wind gusts that approached 40-45 knots one day, I didn’t get blown over - but I was at my limits and if anything else had gone wrong that day, I would have been trying to grow gills.
I can’t believe
this went to 50 posts
Paul