Or A Dock
with a bit of rope hanging in the water. Grab the rope to pull up. Sort of a paddle float replacement.
Lou
Hug the boat
If you feel disoriented, lean forward and hug the boat. It orients you to the boat and puts your hands in position for a bow rescue.
A diving mask is a good learning tool – it’s a lot less scary if you can see what’s going on.
skirtless practice should work
When I capsized during my humbling test paddle of the Sirroco in Houghton, I plopped right out. I really didn’t even think about it being difficult after that. I’ll have to work on this with the skirt on when I get a boat. Any chance of signing up for the Great Lakes Sea Kayak symposium at Grand Marais, MI in July? It’s only $225 for the whole weekend, and has a lot of classes for all skill levels. You have to sign up by Friday, or else it goes up to $295. http://www.glsks.org/ There is one this weekend in Washburn, WI. http://www.inlandsea.org/ It’s theme is rescues. I’d go to this also, but need to test paddle the elaho Saturday.
Baby steps is the way to go -
but be careful especially while using the paddle float to learn to re-enter and roll or to snap you up.
If you haven’t learned how to brace correctly, it is easy to dislocate a shoulder doing these exercises.
Make sure you keep you elbow in tight to your chest and never reach behind you with a paddle float. Your elbow should never be higher than the height of shoulder.
A friend forgot this while doing paddlefloat rolls and wound up with a dislocated shoulder and torn rotator cuff. He was off the water for a year and had several surgery’s to correct it.
OK…
I filtered through all you people have written and it is a confidence builder just reading it! Thanks!
I have been paddling (summers only)for 3 summers (this starts my fourth. I haven’t done any big water except about a half dozen couple-hour trips on Lake Superior. One was along Pictured Rocks and that was enough to make me realize I need to be able to know what to do in the case of a capsize. The majority of my paddling has been on slow, large rivers and inland lakes. I want to increase the big water I paddle.
Today was a step better than yesterday, although I only capsized twice while sitting in the boat and without the skirt. The rest of the time I spent walking the boat out to chest-deep water, flipping it, then using goggles, swam under it and grabbed the combing and swung myself up butt-first into the cockpit. I would most of the time just grab on and let myself hang there for longer periods of time. I did some crawling up onto the boat and riding on the back deck for balance, practiced low braces in shallow water…used that orange Sirocco as a beach toy. I didn’t even paddle it! It was fun and my family plans to take advantage of this heat wave in the U.P. of Michigan and head back to the beach tomorrow.
I really appreciate all the advice you all have given me.
I plan to be in Grand Marais for the symposium, but as a spectator only. Not in the budget…maybe next year. I like to paddle around during the Saturday and check out all the boats and watch people roll. I’ll be the guy keeping his distance in the orange Sirocco and yellow pfd. Grand Marais is my hometown and that is a day I always visit.
possible UP beginner trip
Where do you live now? I’m in Gladstone. Maybe we could sneak in a paddle at the end of the season when I’ll be more ready.
Hugging the boat
Also something to do, tho’ I kinda like both measures, goggles and stopping to really feel up your boat, at first. You can use the goggles to really get a sense of where your head and torso are lying along the boat, how far out you can get, which I found helpful later on in correcting rolling issues. The hugging the boat part will give you a sure fire way to figure out if you are fully under the boat and ready to start a roll w/o being able to see thru the water, and is in general a good habit to protect your head.
good thread
I’m not too comfortable yet either, since I’ve done a wet exit only once. I had an instructor standing next to me in the water, and it went fine, except I felt like I should really hurry and I did inhale a bunch of water (it was pretty cold water). I love the suggestions of training in small steps without a skirt, hanging out under the boat with goggles etc. I think these will be very helpful suggestions once I have a boat to practice in and find the perfect shallow safe warm water…