RE: [Paddlewise] Sponsons

I am not a fan of sponsons. Sponsons are a very poor substitute for
avoiding a wet exit in the first place. But some of the things that
people say about them suggest that they have not really spent any time
developing their "sponson technique". (Excuse me now while I go search
for my asbestos suit...) 

-----------
You'll have to get your fire somewhere else ;-)

I bought some during the sponson wars (Voyager, not <his>) and know I'd have
trouble in really rough water because I still haven't developed the
'technique' :-)

4 fastnet clips are permanently tied to the fore and aft bungie fasteners
closest to the cockpit.  The sponsons themselves have straps and clips that
hook into them.

While on one side of the (probably)wildly bucking kayak, you must inflate
one sponson but connect the clips of the other to the clips on your side.  

Now you have to pass the uninflated sponson you just clipped in and the
straps of the inflated sponson under the kayak and somehow make them come
out on the other side of the kayak.

Hopefully you have a real skinny kayak and/or some really long arms so you
can push these things under the kayak with one hand and reach over the
bucking kayak and grab them with the other.  That's lots of fun even in calm
waters.  If you can't, then you somehow have to manuever around to the other
side of the kayak and hope the straps and the uninflated sponson are still
there.

Now it's a simple matter to connect the clips and inflate the sponson and
see if you have the right straps connected to the right clips.  Some of us
more mechanically challenged folks sometimes have trouble with this part in
which case we get to deflate the sponsons, unhook the clips and start all
over.

Once installed properly, the sponsons didn't seem to hinder me much (or
maybe the image has grown foggy with time) when doing a paddle float rescue,
but then I get pretty good thrust with my legs and can hop up on the deck
pretty far.  When not installed properly, they just kinda float there, don't
provide any support, look like broken training wheels, generally just get in
the way and look pretty stupid.

At least that's how I remember things from a couple of years ago, but like
Dan says, I probably haven't fully developed the proper sponson technique
yet :-).






Unless you're gonna wear them all the time you're gonna have some trouble
and take some time putting them on in rough water.







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