Scott wrote: >As a beach lifeguard I obviously didn't have a PFD >on. The lack of a PFD also increased my diving ability. Has anyone >tried to dive under a wave with a PFD on? What happens? Most of my swimming in surf with a PFD has been no problem. This occurs when I'm surf kayaking on the West Coast. Naturally, my own roll is bombproof, but occasionally I will deliberately "blow a roll" just so my less skilled companions do not develop an inferiority complex -). As you get closer to shore, you simply swim like hell as the waves pick you up, and kick just enough to "hold your place" as the water drains back out to sea (the same sort of technique you would use for moving through surge with SCUBA gear on, for those who dive.) Years ago, in winter on Lake Ontario, I did wind up swimming involuntarily. I had been knocked over and had wet exited. This was in my pre-paddle leash days, and by the time I had surfaced, the wind had snatched my empty and buoyant sea-kayak far out of reach (it made shore with no problem, and way ahead of me). Anyway, on that day, some weird conjunction of wind and wave meant that I got caught being endlessly "cycled" a few hundred feet offshore. The incoming wave would throw me forward a bit, then the ebb would take me back to where I had been. Even in my wetsuit, the water was very cold, and the situation was no joke. The solution turned out to be taking the dive knife off my ankle - one of those Rambo jobs, but with a pry end rather than a point. I would ride in on the ingoing wave. In the brief lull I would dive - fighting the buoyancy of the PFD, which was less in fresh water than it would be in salt - and plant the knife in the sand. I would hold with both hands as the outflow ran around me, then surface to begin the cycle again. It only took ten or so such cycles before I was in water shallow enough that incoming waves no longer knocked me over. Anyway, one experience, any others out there? Philip T. **************************************** Mountain Equipment Co-op 1655 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 1K1 Tel: 640-732-1989 Fax: 604-731-6483 email: pid_at_mec.ca Visit our website at: http://www.mec.ca ***************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Nov 12 1998 - 09:09:42 PST
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