Re: [Paddlewise] Paddle Float

>You can do it without fastening it to rear deck, but it's tougher. And it's
>still difficult to pump out your boat in rough and windy conditions.

-----------------------
I dug out part of a report on a surf zone course I took last year.  Thought
it might be appropiate to this thread:
-----------------------

After lunch we launched into some larger surf and paddled to another part of
the beach where steeper 3-5 foot waves were breaking over a sandbar. Now I
could see them and told an instructor to get ready for some rescues because
I was going to get a lot more aggressive. Sure enough, I got knocked
sideways and leaned too far into a wave and took a dump. (Not that kind, I
fell over <g>).

When they came to rescue me, I told them I wanted to do a self-rescue. What
a disaster! First, both sandals had come loose and were being held on by the
strap across the instep. I'm between the kayak and shore and the instructor
tells me to get on the other side of the kayak. The wind is blowing on shore
and I tell him I want to be on the downwind side so the kayak is not being
blown away from me. He disagrees and wins as I get to the upwind side away
from the shore.

I got the paddle float out from under the bungies and started inflating one
side with my elbow hooked over the stern. A wave came along and knocked me
off of the kayak and it floated away. An instructor kindly brought it back
to me. I stuck my arm under the bungies this time.

I stuck the paddle in the float, inflated the other side but forgot to
attach the strap to the paddle shaft. When I tried to lift my leg up on the
float, it too floated away. An instructor kindly brought it back to me. I
then attached the float to the shaft.

So I try again and am up on the rear deck when a wave catches me broadside.
I didn’t have enough weight on the float so lost my balance and took another
swim. Meanwhile, the instructors would say here comes a big one and I would
get hammered again.

I get up on the rear deck again, and try to get my feet in the cockpit but
my sandals are both flopping around and I have a pretty hard time getting
them and my feet in. Finally I do and I’m now sitting in a cockpit full of
water in 3-5 foot waves that fortunately are 6-8 seconds apart and not much
chop or anything in between.

I get hit by another wave and decide facing into the waves would probably be
a good thing. I get turned into them, set the paddle so I can lean my power
elbow on the float for support and start pumping. Do you know how long it
takes to pump out a cockpit full of water? My elbow gets sore so I switch
the paddle to the other side but can’t get my balance so move it back.

I’m negotiating 3-4 waves with no problem, keeping the kayak straight and
just rolling over them. I get more than half the water out of the cockpit
and here comes a 5 footer. We go up the wave the same as we did with the 3-4
footers but didn’t go any higher. I punched through the last foot or so of
the wave and of course the cockpit filled up again. Eventually I got the
cockpit empty and the spray skirt back on and joined the others.




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