Being a chicken kayak surfer, I only go out when the break is less than 3 feet, the water temp is more than 60, and there is a nice smooth sandy beach with no rocks. (Prevailing summer conditions in Southern California.) However, in these conditions the water is shallow near the break. Since my surfing technique is mediocre, I get knocked over every 5 or 10 rides. If the water is deep enough I can roll up and rarely fail to roll. But the water often isn't deep enough so I exit and stand up. What is the danger of spine or neck or back injury when getting knocked over in shallow water? I have been there many times with no hint of injury, but am I pushing the odds? Does anyone know of cases of such injury? Jerry *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Gerald Foodman wrote: --snip-- > What is the danger of spine or neck or back injury when getting knocked over > in shallow water? I have been there many times with no hint of injury, but > am I pushing the odds? Does anyone know of cases of such injury? Jerry: I have landed on my back once while in a rapid (Kipawa's Hollywood's Boneyard at about 200 cms). A wave tossed me in the air, and I flipped over. I tucked forward and landed upside down in the trough. The total height of my fall was about four feet. I did not break anything, but my lats were severely bruised. I felt very lucky to not have broken my back, and believe that the thick padding of my PFD was the only thing which saved me. My friend Jake Scott broke his neck when he drifted over a four foot ledge upside down (Temagami's S-Bend in moderately low water). He hit bottom in the hole. He was neither tucked nor layed back, so he took the hit on his noggin. Miraculously, he did not suffer any nerve damage. He was so moved by the experience that after he recovered he went back to school to take up a career as a rescue technician. Consequently, I am absolutely terrified of landing on my head. What I fear most when surfing at the beach is pitonning (the nose digging into the ground while the wave pushes the boat vertical), for when this happens it is possible to come arcing down from several feet high -- about four feet in my wild water boat and twice that in my sea kayak. I try to avoid pitonning by leaning back when my bow goes too far under, and in severe cases I try to quickly move from a front surf to a side surf to avoid digging in. If this fails and a piton is inevitable, I lean the boat just prior to digging in, so that although I still dig in and go vertical, I land on my hull or my side rather than my noggin. If I am too slow, I sweep while going vertical, which makes the boat pirouette (it goes up on end and then spins on its longitudinal axis), and again prevents me from landing on my head. If even this fails, then I extend my paddle so that it hits first. I realize that this puts me at serious risk of a dislocation, but I would prefer just about anything to landing on my head. If you want to learn how to pirouette your pitonning boat but don't want to get into white water, where pirouettes are basic hole playing and surfing moves, tag up with your local wild water crowd in the winter and practice off a three metre diving platform -- though don't use a sea kayak, for they are too long and will hit the platform on the rebound. Hmmm.... I wonder.... If one put some Official Canadian Ballast Rocks (TM) in one's stern hatch toward the sprit, would this prevent pitonning? 8^) Richard Culpeper www.geocities.com/~culpeper *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, Gerald Foodman wrote: <SNIP> > What is the danger of spine or neck or back injury when getting knocked over > in shallow water? I have been there many times with no hint of injury, but > am I pushing the odds? Does anyone know of cases of such injury? > > Jerry The danger is real, but the chance is minimal if you practice the proper technique of tucking your body forward as if to hug the foredeck whenever you flip. At the Kayak Academy, we teach this from day one, whether it be sea kayaking or whitewater, and we reinforce this concept constantly whenever we have students try something that may result in a capsize. "Kiss the Cockpit Coaming" is a mantra that we should all remember, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend playing the Telephone Game with it. Judging by your description of mellow surf on sandy beaches, you should be just fine if you always tuck forward. It will be up to you to get this concept into a reflex, and to exercise judgement about not surfing big shorebreak where waves break in very shallow water. Happy surfing! kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, K. Whilden wrote: > On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, Gerald Foodman wrote: > > > What is the danger of spine or neck or back injury when getting knocked over > > in shallow water? I have been there many times with no hint of injury, but > > am I pushing the odds? Does anyone know of cases of such injury? > > The danger is real, but the chance is minimal if you practice the proper > technique of tucking your body forward as if to hug the foredeck whenever > you flip. A couple of months ago there was a thread on this in rec.boats.paddle. One contributor, I believe Corran Addison, was a firm believer in leaning backwards instead of leaning forward. His logic was that he would much rather lose teeth than damage his spine or skull. For a roll he does something that ends up in a low brace (a roll I've yet to figure out.) kirk *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
At 12:49 PM 9/21/98 -0400, Kirk Olsen wrote: >> The danger is real, but the chance is minimal if you practice the proper >> technique of tucking your body forward as if to hug the foredeck whenever >> you flip. > >A couple of months ago there was a thread on this in rec.boats.paddle. One >contributor, I believe Corran Addison, was a firm believer in leaning >backwards instead of leaning forward. His logic was that he would much >rather lose teeth than damage his spine or skull. For a roll he does >something that ends up in a low brace (a roll I've yet to figure out.) I've hurt my back pretty badly (strain/bruise) when getting rapidly and forcefully flipped in heavy surf over a shallow bottom. On each occassion, I was stretching back rather than bending forward. Neither makes getting out of the boat any easier when it's upside down and I've not found a way to truly roll. The water in this surf is too shallow, so I'd have to do a full body and boat pushup, which I don't have the upper body strength for. Out of context, I'd think the "rather lose teeth (by banging into coaming/deck)than damage spine or skull" to mean he'd prefer to lean forward. Wynne Americus, GA *************************************************************************** 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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