@Guideboatguy said:
“How to behave”?Be humble.
Ditto
Sing and Peter have given excellent responses based on extensive experience in the surf. The Scupper Pro is actually a very seaworthy SOT and surfs well. What you need to do is get some experience making surf landings in smaller waves. Make sure you are wearing thigh straps and learn to lean into a wave coming at you side ways, brace in or on top of the wave and either surf the white water diagonally or bongo slide by tipping way into the wave and let the wave bash the boat towards shore while you keep yourself upright with the thigh straps and bracing. Practice bongo slides and foam surfing in small waves and you will be much more confident in 5 footers. The other trick to learn is to paddle in on the back of dumping waves. Waves tend to dump at nearly the same spot unless they are shifting a lot in size. Stay outside, watch where they dump and then maneuver so you can paddle up behind a dumping wave and paddle onto it’s back just a bit with your bow before it throws. You’ll cruise into the beach looking like a pro.
great suggestion on the broached surf. Once you have a decent low brace and lean you can ride out almost anything as it pushes you to shore sideways. You just stick your paddle into the wave, lean into it, and ride it out. (of course its easier to say than do but is not hard to do). I know some people with long kayaks who always surf broached.
Just one comment on coming in sideways, at least as you get nearer the shore. Nice because you stay in your boat and just curl on out again w/o a capsize.
But somewhere, somehow I started out expecting that the my level of commitment to bracing into the waves would lighten up as I got much closer to shore. It was just a dumb assumption that got into my head, no fault of the coaches. But after the fourth capsize in the last several inches of water I realized that I was letting go of that support too soon. If anything I needed to deepen it.
If it is summer, do everything you can to grab after your boat so that people are not hit. If nothing else yell at the people so that they at least get out of the way. My boat took a kid out right at the shins. I felt terrible that he got bloody shins. IF you have a pfd on and a helmet, jus swim- float in and begin apologizing to everyone. After all they in in the surf for very different reasons. I always search the surf moving along the shore to find a spot with no people. One time in July I had to paddle almost half a mile just to find a place to land. Most of all have fun.
kayakboy if you are using an SOT in crowded surf zone you should have a paddle leash so the boat does not get away from you in a capsize. Hitting a kid with a kayak is pretty much a terminal sin around here. You are lucky you did not get the crap beat out of you by the locals.
Leash in the surf zone can be a problem too. On the surfski forums its regarded as a big no-no, as the boat can injure your leg.
There is more than one antidote of people injuring their hip or knee after capsizing in the surf and having the boat pulled away hard by the wave.
Best to plan the beach approach appropriately to avoid people and disconnect the leash immediately before entering the surf zone.
On my surf kayak I have lengths of nylon webbing/straps attached to the front and rear, they extend above a foot from the ends of the boat. If I go for a swim I can hold onto the strap, preferably the rear, and guide the boat in. Easy with a sit in style of kayak, which fills with water, but probably a good setup for a sot kayak as well. You might also be able to get your torso up on the back of the boat, use your legs to alternate kicking your way in and anchoring the back of the boat when waves pass over, so it doesn’t shoot off through the surf zone. Doing this while retaining control of your paddle would be tricky but a bonus.
Just be careful not to make any loops, or to twist your hand or fingers in any straps, could be a good way to get hurt.
The point is to keep from injuring other people like small children on a public beach .
Yeah I would be pretty pissed if some kook lost control of their kayak and it hit my kid. At least run a leash between the boat and paddle, and make it a point to hang onto the paddle if you capsize, if you let go should slow it down enough won’t be a surf zone missile. Or a good surfer’s leash the same length as the boat tied to the rear of the boat, and attatched to your ankle or calf, a ten foot kayak won’t generate enough energy to mess you up any worse than some of the bigger sups. Big difference between a 10 foot boat and a 18-20 foot surfski as far as drag in the surf zone. And if it’s attached to a pointy end there’s even less drag still once it’s pointed at the beach, But it’s still a 20 foot kill zone with that setup, at least you can rein it in between waves.
Many of the public beaches in Massachusetts won’t let you land or launch a kayak during the summer, between memorial and labor day, the life guards, park rangers, or state police will chase you out. Still let the surfers and sup paddlers out, but 95% of those folks are using leashes, and will usually politely educate their own.
I’ve seen some pretty interesting kayak “surf launches” in knee high waves the last warm weeks after Labor day (I’ve been there done that myself) and I keep my distance while I enjoy the show.