James Lofton wrote: > > Quite frankly, I didn't know being alone was so differant or dangerous > until I got on this site. I always figured that being alone was a frame > of mind anyway and being with someone was false security more than > likely. > Thinking back to the original post (glad he got to write it up), I wonder how much real use a companion would have been in 6' breaking waves. Good moral support, but how many of us could do a rescue in those conditions? This spring we were paddling off Folly Beach SC at the East Coast SK Symposium. Incoming tide, brisk onshore wind, big surf, 6-7' foot swells outside the breakers. Our choice was to punch out through and paddle along shore to the inlet or carry down to the inlet and put in. Five boats chose to punch. I made it through the surf fine, as did the paddler in the baidarka ahead of me. Minutes later, I saw him surfing a wave. Cool, I though, at least until I realized he wasn't surfing, he was being surfed. He leaned wrong, and you can guess the rest. I paddled over and tried to help, but his boat had almost no flotation and was being washed into the surf zone. I'm not that good, I'm afraid. Leave me alone, he said, I'm washing in and I'll be on the beach in a few minutes. I hung around, though, trying to stabilize him a little and picking up pieces of his gear. It seemed to me that leaving a swimmer was not an acceptable policy. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying enough attention at some point, and got broached by a big wave. I rode it for a while sideways and then got Maytagged. Roll didn't work, so now there were 2 of us getting washed into the beach. I had about a 5 minute swim through the surf. His was about 10. Not sure if there is a moral to this story, but my being there didn't help him any. Steve *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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