Hi Daniel-
Thank you for appreciating the work we do. Some risks are easier to quantify than others. When I was in my 20s, the average fatality rate for experienced mountaineers who went to Nepal to climb the big peaks was 1 in 10. I didn’t like those odds. Today, Annapurna kills 1 in 3, and K2, 1 in 4. You’d do better playing a round of Russian Roulette. The best accident statistics we have for paddlesports are published each year by the US Coast Guard. They provide a lot of insight, but it’s far from complete. For example, they tell us the following:
Over Half Of Paddlesports Accidents Are Fatal
Accidents involving canoes, kayaks, and standup paddleboards are far more likely to be fatal than accidents involving any other type of vessel.
They’re 5 times more likely to be fatal than open motorboat accidents.
They’re 13 times more likely to be fatal than personal watercraft (“Jet Ski”) accidents.
That makes sense when you realize that paddlers end up in the water far more often than motorboat passengers or jet ski riders.
But from my perspective, the cold water risk in paddlesports involves a lot of variables but three stand out:
How many paddlers capsize relative to the number who paddle. No one knows. So let’s look a little closer.
If a paddler capsizes in cold water without a PFD or thermal protection, what is their chance of survival? I think if they’re paddling alone, they have almost no chance. Ditto without a partner who is skilled in assisted rescues.
If they have a PFD, their chance of survival improves but it’s still low. How low? Nobody knows, but if you read accident reports all the time like I do, it’s not a risk I would ever consider taking.
If they’re wearing thermal protection and a PFD, they’re likely to survive. We rarely see accident reports to the contrary.
Another thing to consider is the absolutely horrific nature of an unprotected cold water immersion. Survivors frequently report PTSD symptoms from just looking at their paddlecraft as well as having nightmares for months afterwards.
With the Five Golden Rules, we’ve tried to simplify the equation as much as possible. We could even reduce it to one rule: Wear Your PFD and Thermal Protection, but we’re trying to help paddlers build a more robust safety net. The seat belt / helmet analogy only goes so far. I think paddling on cold water without a PFD and thermal protection is closer to rock climbing without a rope.
That’s about as close as you’re going to get on risk assessment. Again, you might paddle for decades on cold water and never capsize, just as you might operate a motor vehicle without a seat belt for decades and never have a serious accident. What we do know with certainty is that if you are in serious a accident, these safety precautions save lives. What they don’t do is guarantee your survival. Unprotected immersion in cold water is extraordinarily dangerous. You seem to understand the danger. How you address it is completely up to you.
You ae starting to give me anxiety about kayaking. Lol.
Don’t over think this stuff so much. You are getting bogged down with ideas and situations you have not even experienced yet (and may never experience).
All the other activities you listed have their own risks and those risks increase as you become more advanced. I see no point in comparing them to kayaking because “apples and oranges”.
You will understand the need for this once you begin your course and apply it to the type of kayaking you wish to do. The amount of stuff I take with me on a nice, sunny, calm summer day in a slow moving river would baffle most people watching me launch.
Everyone dies from something. Choose something fun…
Use the appropriate safety gear, be aware of your surroundings and the conditions, don’t go beyond your skills, and you should be fine. It’s important to be aware of the risks, but you’ll psych yourself out of the sport all together obsessing over every possible “what if” scenario.
Aside from the risks of paddling solo - been around that one - I have found that as a solo I can be closer to wildlife without disturbing them than in a group. I still try to avoid doing so, been a long time since I saw any seal haul outs up close since I am most likely to be around them in July when the calves are still quite white. But I have noticed that I can drift quietly and get by spots without creating alarm that are guaranteed to upset wildlife with a group.
The pelagic birds make no attempt to stay away from me if I am near a fish, as long as my paddling is on the slower and quiet side.
And again very true. One of my most enjoyable trips was when returned to kayaking this year to paddle a frequently traveled course up a river and saw many things that passed notice before.
I had this when I lived in Hawaii. It was absolutely fantastic. One of my coworker friends knows how to sail as well but he hasn’t bought a boat quite yet. That opportunity could be on the horizon
I actually didn’t have that love for the sea before getting into sea kayaking. I got into it after having a lot of fun playing in waves on a lake in a recreational kayak, and wanting to experience bigger waves and tougher conditions. But once I started sea kayaking, my love (and respect) for the sea grew quickly.
And before anyone asks, no, I didn’t take my rec kayak into the ocean. I did my research and bought an appropriate kayak before venturing off shore. That research is how I found this site
This is precisely my wavelength. I have a long history of anxiety, which can best be described as “what if…” over and over again in the mind. I’ve learned to manage it pretty well and it’s not a phobia of capsizing or heights or anything, it’s generalized anxiety.
I naturally overthink things and I’m prone to the psyching out you mention. I assume to enjoy kayaking one has to let go (mentally) to some degree, to immerse into the environment. The sights and sounds. The wonders mentioned in the posts in this thread, in the photos in the beautiful pictures thread, etc.
I also deal with anxiety, though most likely not to the degree you have to. It can be a struggle, but it can also be a useful tool. If you are able to overcome it to the point of getting into a kayak and getting on the water, the anxiety can actually help with your situational awareness. You can feel every little difference in how the water currents interact with your kayak, being aware of how you’re about to be off balance before you actually are and being able to correct yourself, and also being able to spot a situation that’s beyond your skill level before you get into it. Eventually you can push this almost hyper-awareness to the background, where you will be able to let go more and enjoy yourself. But, that will only come with the experience, as I’m sure a lot of the anxiety comes more from the unknown and inexperience. Something may feel not quite right or take you by surprise, for example a water current in a particular spot. You’ll question if it’s supposed to be that way, if that’s normal, and only experience will be able to convince you that it is, and that experience will help you be able to navigate it. I remember the first time I had my kayak spin 90 degrees because of a current I couldn’t see. Scared the hell out of me lol. But, realizing that that kind of current is normal for where I was paddling (the mouth of the Piscataqua river off of Newcastle, NH during ebb tide), I know to expect it, and what to do when I get to it.
One thing to be aware of though, if you take any medications for your anxiety or are planning to, or any other medications for other conditions, they can have adverse effects when you spend a lot of time in the sun.
Yep yep. This is key and certainly not unique to kayaking. I can get out there on/in a kayak as I’ve done it before in tours or just renting, and I don’t mind the basic act of falling into water. It’s good to know after arriving at this forum to wear the immersion gear and respect the water. I hope to cultivate respect for it and not so much fear, as I’ve also seen many mentions of stiffness causing capsize
I never really feared capsizing. When the water got too cold, I packed away the kayak for the season. Then again, I’m not inexperienced with cold water. I grew up swimming at Hampton Beach here, and if the water was above 60 degrees, that meant it was August lol.
I will say though, VERY cold water is not something to go into without protection. I dove into the river on an odd 90 degree day in April when I was a teen. My body almost immediately went numb. I managed to hold my gasp reflex until I surfaced. It wasn’t until I was back on shore that I found out from a boater that the water was 42 degrees. It took a long time laying in the sun to warm up again, and I was in the water for maybe a minute. Lesson learned.
I bought a wetsuit the same week I bought my sea kayak, and was good until early November. Still working on getting a drysuit though.
Unlike golf that has course fees every time you go out once you buy a kayak much of the launch sites around me are free or maybe $10 tops. My touring kayak I bought a last year’s model close out and paid $1200-1300 hard to remember 25 years ago. Even with the new math that is about $50 a year which is about what most rentals would cost you.
Why do I still kayak now? It keep the grey hair away. Start small in some calmer back water and work you way up to the bigger stuff.
Large is a term that means different things to different people,. But if you live in many (most) other states we don’t have large lakes here. The one 7 minutes from my home is 21 mile long and 7 miles wide at it’s widest place, and it’s the 3rd largest in Wyoming.
Yellowstone Lake and Flaming Gorge are both bigger, but compared to those in the Great lake states or many states in the east and south we only have little lakes.
