Re: [Paddlewise] BCU kayak entry & exit

I like to address the issue of using a paddle to get into or exit your
boat.

First, some general principles:

1. It is best to avoid using your paddle and to develop other ways of
getting in and out.  That is not to say not to use your paddle but
rather try to minimize using this crutch.

2. If you must use a paddle behind you to exit/enter than place only
minimum pressure on the shaft.  The paddle is just an auxiliary aid for
better balance in exiting/entering and not to be used to hold your total
weight as some people do with the paddle.  (It is similar to using a
paddle float rescue where the less weight you put on the outrigged
paddle, the better off you are in getting back in.)  Consider the hand
placement of your outboard hand. Breakage is most likely to occur near
the blade and results from having the outboard hand too close to your
boat and the resulting long lever putting excessive breaking force at
the outboard blade end.  If entering off a beach, you may want the
outboard hand to be well into the water and close-ish to the blade.


Next, some applications:

A.  One thing I really like about most folding kayaks is how little you
have to rely, if at all, on using the paddle behind the back for getting
back in.  In some models, you can step right in (although I have had
several dramatic pratfalls in doing so, much to the entertainment of
onlookers!).  End of sermon. :-)

B.  Exiting/entering re. docks.  I see a lot of people use the paddle
for this when it is least necessary in such situations for any boat.  If
you position yourself on the dock where you can grab on to something
such as a rope or tieoff dock fixture, you don't need the paddle at
all.  Also there is a way of getting in and out that is quite masterful
that I have seen Ken Fink do and write up in some publication (which I
have subsquently lost).  He uses it for very narrow hardshells and it
works.  I won't risk describing it but I hope someone on this list can
prevail on Ken to replicate it on some website or find the magazine, get
permission from the publisher, and get the method on line.  Ken goes
ballastic when he sees someone putting their paddle behind them
(especially a Lightning or other expensive paddle).  I was with him when
he barked at such a transgression by someone and his bellowing was so
startling that it almost sent me tumbling into the drink.

C.  Exiting and entering at a beach or shoreline.

1. If you sit on your back deck with your feet straddling the boat you
can often get in without a paddle supporting you (the secret is keeping
yourself centered, your legs acting as outriggers,  and having equal
amount of force on both hands behind you as you swing in one leg and
then the other).  Or if you feel a need to use the paddle in this type
of straddling entry, you wind up reducing pressure on the paddle because
you are already sitting on the boat which is taking a lot of your
weight.

2. If coming in from the side, as a lot of people do, whatever you do,
don't come in in a way that you are practically sitting on the shaft
where it is suspended between boat and the grounded outboard
blade...that is a paddle killer.  Try to work you butt so that it is
over the boat when you start putting pressure on the supporting paddle
with your outboard hand (and put plenty of pressure on the inboard hand
which is over the boat and pressing down on it thus reducing leveraging
pressure on the shaft).  And again keep that outboard hand as far toward
the grounded outboard blade as you can. 

ralph diaz 
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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