On/off tip
For you Sea Kayaker types who have composite coamings - and don’t need extreme bomber WW/Surf fit - I highly recommend adding some auto door protector trim around the coaming rim.
The trim makes it MUCH easier to get skirt on and off, with less wear and tear on skirt and hands, and improves seal (more/smoother contact area.
The cheapest smallest plainest stuff is best for this. Most coamings are black so the standard black stuff is practically invisible. Clear is probably available for others.
Short of that, at least sand/smooth off/round over the edges.
Yup - a glove thing
The winter gloves I wear are at least twice as thick as the regular long finger NRS gloves. Other alternatives include Nordic Blues which are essentially thick dishwashing gloves and take a lining underneath, stuff like the NRS Reactor gloves which are pre-curved and really difficult to feel much in, or pogies with gloves underneath which represent their own set of adaptations.
Immersion Research
I have one of their spray decks with the “extra” strap. It’s not another grab strap; it runs right across where one’s knees are. The idea is that you tighten up the strap to take out any slack and if you need to panic exit, the action of drawing up your knees/legs will automatically pop the skirt.
You can of course grab the strap as well, but the main pull loop is well designed with a bit of plastic tubing to keep it partially open.
The strap lays flush enough that I’d argue if you’re in a situation where you have to worry about it causing an extra entanglement hazard, it’s the least of your worries and you’re about to get a face full of sharp rock or tree.
Phreon
i love the fact that youa re trying all
of this Paul…
next one…flip and try just pushing your knee up into the skirt deck…see how much pressure you need to pop off the skirt…
the knee strap (ala IR shockwave) just provides an area that does not stretch when you push upwards against it…makes the knee pop easier and quicker…
r
Will do.
– Last Updated: May-11-07 11:39 AM EST –
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to slide out of the seat a little bit, and back past the back band, before I can get my knees past the coaming. Probably easy upside down.
Paul
Yep!
That’s what I was told too.
I have yet to see the kind that are loose that you can grab onto. The ones I saw was tight and you can “pop” your skirt with your knee.
The outfitter who used it told me it helps HIS peace of mind that a less experienced paddler might panic and couldn’t do a wet exit properly.
Calculated risks
All of kayaking is a series of calculated risks based on experience.
Remember the pump on the back deck that used to come with Valley boats? My brother once got it caught under his pfd doing a lay back roll. It came off the boat that week.
Snapdragon’s
The strap is tightened to be flush to the deck, at least the way I set mine, but since the deck is neoprene I found that it is pretty easy to sweep my hand up and depress the deck, hand goes right under the strap. I’ve seen IR’s skirts and am hard-pressed to think that wouldn’t work with theirs as well.
It may well be that Snapdragon figures it’ll work by kneeing up into the skirt, I just look at it and think theirs is a litle too thin (1 inch) to be sure that would work. I would think that the strap would have to be more like two to three inches wide for that to be a sure bet. But I could be all wrong - will give it a try the next time I am in the Innazone.
Too funny.
– Last Updated: May-17-07 3:53 AM EST –
After all that, they sent me a skirt with no knee strap :). Just as well. If I hadn't rushed to order before the discussion here played out and I had experimented a bit, I probably would have ordered with no knee strap anyway.
The new M deck goes on and off just as easily as my L deck skirt. It seems like the rand isn't much different size, though the M desk does not have as much slack when on. I cant palm the slack material on the side as easily as with the L, but it's easy to pinch the side to get the rand off without pulling the front pull loop.
I just need to call Rutabaga (sp?) to have them refund me the diff. They also charged me tax which is wrong for Oregon.
edit: After experimenting a bit, based on some of your comments, I have no worries now about getting the skirt off as long as I have one good hand. If I have no good hands I'm probably paralyzed or unconscious, in which case I'd have to rely on a paddling partner to get me out, assuming I brought one of those with me :). Thanks again for the discussion here.
Paul S.
“If I have no good hands…”
“I’d have to rely on a paddling partner …”
Or dolphins
i dont have the strap on my IR shockwave
tight…and i still have no problems kicking it off with my knee if i need to…it should not be that tight because if it is then the strap is actually pulling up the edged of the rand…creating a place for water to get in…and for the skirt to pop REALLY easily (accidentally-when you do not want it to)
In some white water…
…the force of the water can be too great to
get the skirt off reliably thast way.
A lot of white water hand paddlers user the
safety strap because they can get their hands under it without having to take their hand
paddles off.
Recent addition
Snap Dragon added this feature to the Glacier Skirt two or three years ago. An older skirt would not have it.
doesn’t always work in WW…
…see my post above.
Or
"Or dolphins"
At my latitude, I might have to put my hope in trained sea lions.
Paul
adaptive
– Last Updated: May-18-07 6:27 AM EST –
I have paddled with a fellow with "no good hands"
He had homemade adaptive arrangements with which to "grip" the paddle.
He used no spray skirt.
also 1st time I ever saw someone load and unload his kayak while in a wheelchair...
my wife
My wife has short arms and can not reach far enough forward to pull the strap and release the skirt. The extra safety pull strap is great for her.
Dennis
Lassie
He got Timmy out of the well, he can save you too.