@rjd9999 Just for information, what boat are you paddling where the “straps on the back deck” offer secure storage for a spare? None of my sea kayaks have other than two or three runs of bungies in back, usually one to two less crosses than are available on the front deck.
I am aware of some specific models of sea kayaks that have had paddle-specific arrangements on the back deck, though I don’t know if any of those are still in production.
@Peter-CA said:
Neptune’s Rangers use front deck
If you look at this video - http://youtu.be/SSUmd038ATE - you will see that most of the Neptune’s Rangers use them on their front decks. They often have extra length of deck lines and bungees installed to which wraps around the paddle shaft to ensure they hold on (and as the video shows - there is reason for that).Front deck gives better access should you need to get at it in an emergency (like grabbing a half of the spare paddle to roll up, if you lose your paddle).
Back deck can be an issue of how to access for some - but likely not an issue for most (here is a helmet cam video I took when I dropped my paddle back when I had my paddles on my back deck, so had to grab my spare: http://youtu.be/VWJYnZnGDBU). But on back deck often can cause issues when doing rescues as you are now rescuing over the paddles.
On my longer boat, I often put half front and half back. I can scramble easily over the half paddle, but I also like having it there to help hold the rear hatch on.
I stow half the spare on the front and half on the back, too.
@blackboat said:
see front deck storm paddle…
starting @ 2:07 of this video…
In the video of the storm paddle on front deck he didn’t use ALL the front bungees to secure it. I use all mine on my Valley Avocet RM and it stays put. BUT you have to use all the bungees not just a few.
I just looked at the video three times and darned if I can see the above mentioned paddle well enough to be sure I am reading it correctly. That said, if I get good enough at paddling to leave a paddle in the middle of a big arse rock pile like that and back out laughing, I will probably not worry too much about how many bungies I caught.
If the boat is short bungies …or grab lines…add some.