Re: [Paddlewise] kayaker lost off Galveston

>  An eye witness reported the paddler being so far off shore that he appeared
> as a mere speck on the horizon. That and the fact that he was paddling a
> rented boat leads me to the conclusion that the problem here is really not one
> of whether or not he was wearing a pfd, but yet another case of an uninformed,
> inexperienced person going way beyond their limits with rented equipment.

Agreed, that would be about 1-2 miles out, probably.  Its real easy 
to get that far out in a kayak and not realize you've gone from 
screwing around in the surf, to navigating in the open ocean.  And 
with our very drawn out, moderate surf zone, its easy not to notice.
We don't have big waves here, but they start breaking *way* out 
from shore, and keep breaking all the way in.   You could be 
1000yds out and still have the same kind of breaking waves you 
see 50 yds out.  Also, the water clarity is very much the same for 
several miles offshore.

And its not like the place the guy rented from is on open water.  
Normally, the folks that rent kayaks in Seabrook have them sitting 
out on a completely flat water lake that is connected by a series of
bays to saltwater.  I wonder if he even told them what he had in 
mind.....

[Add to this the article in Sport Fishing on the use of kayaks to fish 
offshore, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised some clueless 
person decided to just go rent a boat and see if he could get out to 
the rigs.]

Richard Walker
Houston, TX
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