Re: [Paddlewise] baidarka Back Support and Sp*ns*ns

Hi Bill Newman here,

Yes I admit it I have a set of sponsons in my garage.  I purchased them for a
big crossing that I did with Don Dimond.  Our thinking was that if either of us
was very ill or if we had to sleep for an extended period in our boats it would
be worth deploying them.  For the most part I agree with Dougs summary about
sponsons being a possible way to stabilze an injured or ill paddler.  As for
self rescue whether the ease of deployment has improved or not I think they are
too slow and cumbersome to be practical.  I would much rather use a paddle float
for a reentry roll or hopefully use another paddler for a quick team rescue.

Since I am not likely to be towing a sick kayaker across sixty miles of open
water or having to spend the night sleeping in my kayak, on most paddles the
sponsons live in my garage and will probably stay there.  I find that using two
paddle floats to give a sick or injured paddler " training wheels " is a fast
easy way to stabilize your paddling partner.  If you have more than two paddlers
in the group rafting up would be the way to go unless you had a very long tow
ahead of you.  Even then the best answer in my opinion is to have at least four
paddler so you can have two tow boats and one raft.  That gives you a lot of
towing power and one person is always resting in the raft.

I have gotten in to the habit of always having two paddle floats with me so I
can stabilize another paddler and as a backup for myself if for some reason I
lost a paddle float during a self rescue attempt.  Sponsons are just too slow
and cumbersome to deploy (esepecially for us northern folks who prefer to spend
as little time in the icy water as we can!).



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