If you don't have your paddle secured with a paddle leash, then holding your paddle between your legs is a good option. Rolling the boat up with a very quick push-pull of the hands across the cockpit minimizes the amout of water fills the boat. One little trick that some folks use is to put their weight on the stern while the boat is upside down to pop up the bow and drain some water before flipping the boat, but it is not really necessary. The trick to making the paddle float rescue easy is to swim up onto the kayak rather than trying to pull yourself up with your arms. I try to teach my students to keep their hands under their chest with their elbows out, and then just swim up onto the hull with a frog kick keeping your body as flat as possible. A good way to practice is to swim up onto a friends rear kayak deck and slither back off without " rocking the boat ". It is not that hard once you get the hang of it. Once you have mastered the art of sliding on and off the rear deck, you hardly need the paddle float for balance. Su Penn wrote: > Yesterday my partner David, our friend Eli, and I, all relative beginners, > took our boats out in a quiet lake and practiced paddle-float re-entries > for the first time. We knew the theory, but it took a lot of trial and > error before Eli and I were able to successfully perform re-entries. David > was too pooped from towing us back to shore and helping us empty swamped > boats after failures to try re-entries for himself. > > Anyway, I am just so excited to have begun to add this trick to my > reportoire that I wanted to share it with the list. The three of us feel > that in our 2 1/2 hours playing in the water yesterday, we significantly > advanced our skills and our knowledge about what our boats can do and what > we can do. > > We also developed a small shopping list of gear it would be nice--no, make > that essential--to have (who ever said paddle leashes were optional? None > of us was able to right a flipped boat one-handed while holding onto a > paddle with the other hand, and would surely have lost paddles if we'd been > in current or waves--I'm sure this is not news to most of you), and I found > that my PFD is worse than useless and won't be any better unless I install > a crotch strap to keep it from riding up. It's good to learn these things > on a quiet inland lake 20 yards from shore on a warm and sunny day! > > We're all eager to get out in the water again to practice some more. > > Here's a question: Any tips for righting an upside-down boat without taking > on water--or tips for minimizing the water taken on? We found that we > always took on what seemed like a significant amount of water when righting > our boats, and that was on a glassy surface. > > Thanks, > > Su Penn > > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jun 28 1999 - 20:31:28 PDT
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