Someone finally said it…
I have not known any woman with that kind of weight issue in her hips who was really safe any distance from shore. The problem in all the cases I have seen is that their upper body strength is not sufficient to get the back onto or in a boat if they capsize in water over their head.
It is simply not safe to be in a situation where you can’t get out of the water, either due to distance from shore or other factors. If someone can’t get back into a boat on the water, they have to stay where they can swim to shore. A PFD that is comfortable for paddling is not going to have enough flotation to solve the problem.
Yes lean people float less well, but there is a point where total weight rules the day. Before you help her into a boat, do you know what her swimming ability is? That distance should drive the boat choice.
Have followed the thread
Have followed the thread…
Wondering who is going to be there to assist in rescue if prospective paddler uses unsuitable boat, has little to no paddling skills, doesn’t find a pfd that fits correctly, lacks strong swimming skills, and ends up capsizing boat in deep water?
Anyone who gets involved better have their game together. Sounds like accident waiting to happen to me.
BOB
Having struggled all my life
with weight issues I can empathize. At age 64 I believe I a have finally gotten to the right state of mind and landed on the right program for me. I have lost 95 Lbs. I am 5'10" 180 Lbs. and still heading down - my goal is 165-170. I expect to reach my goal in 30 days and then I start the even harder work of maintaining that weight. So, it can be done. I did this without exercise other than walking. I will start exercising more regularly when I hit that weight goal. I did this with an excellent doctor supervised weight program that really worked very very well for me. I did not experience terrible hunger - not even close.
I just purchased a new kayak because my old kayak no longer fits properly. I am really looking forward to ice out.
Good luck to the OP. You are on the right track. Just got a little way to go. You will get there and you will love your new dimensions.
Congratulations
good work three cheers!
That’s terrific, rpg51
Little doubt you’ve added years to your life and probably feel a heck of a lot better too.
Hope the OP’s friend is as successful as you’ve been.
Ditto
25 yrs ago had a surf class that included a young fit and quite big short woman, About 225 and 5’4. She was able to pull off a few assisted rescues where I rescued her Later as an instructor I was exposed to more middle aged obese people and it was pretty obvious the activity just wasn’t right for them. People lose strength as they get older and an older obese person just has too many strikes against them. I had one woman in a second level class that goes over a range of rescues, skills and strokes. She had a nice well used composite recreational kayak but she refused to do any rescues. I asked what she would do in a capsize and she said “swim to shore”. She knew her limits.
I see a lot of guys in the 300lbs + range looking at SOT fishing kayaks with the beach chair seats and I seriously doubt any product testing was done with 300lb paddlers for all the equipment failures and deck cracks that develop.
There are some very heavy folks who can participate in kayaking but they already had some kind of baseline fitness. The folks who come to it without that fitness, or lost it with the weight gain over the decades are up against too many challenges for paddling more than a swimming distance to shore.
Be careful
One of the things about a high seat is that it requires a much wider boat for the same load so they may feel tippy for a 300lb person even if the specs say “500 lb capacity”. Also some of those boats with sliding seats are designed that way so an average weight person can stand up with the seat slid back. A 300lb person can really affect the trim if they’re 6" back on a short kayak. Kayaks like the WS Ride 115 with their fancy seat will splay apart allowing the seat to pop out.
That 42" wide Nucanoe with some kind of custom seat set up sounds like a better choice.
Old Town Tripper
I realized the other day that I have lost more than my favorite royalex tandem tripping canoe weighs. Think of it - six months ago I was walking around with the equivalent of an Old Town Tripper (plus a little) on my back all day every day. Phew. Blows me away. You just have to get yourself in the right frame of mind. For me - a plan for a canoe trip in the Yukon Territories was the incentive I needed.
big kayak
look at ocean kayak big game prowler,Jackson kayaks makes several nice sit on top models, check out the big rig or big tuna, sit on tops , they may be worth a test paddle…