RE: [Paddlewise] Safety--my bad rescue practice experience

From: Matt Broze <mkayaks_at_oz.net>
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 03:53:36 -0700
Peter Treby wrote:
>>Matt, can I ask you to clarify this. I'm not sure the reason you aren't
attempting to roll on the side you happen to have floated up on. Is it
important to roll on the other side, for example you are in surf and want
wave assistance to come up, or wind will prevent a roll on one side? Or is
your paddle stuck on the opposite side? Is this the quick way, before
running out of breath, to get to your strong side roll?<<

I'd roll up on whichever side I had the paddleblade forward and ready to do.
when I had too much flotation sometimes that side would mean I would have to
roll 3/4 of the way around rather than 1/4 if I had floated up on the same
side my forward hand was already on.
In reality I have never been able to think clearly about where I was
underwater after an inadvertent capsize to know which way the wind was
blowing above or even from which direction a wave or breaker was coming from
(which way the current was flowing--but that doesn't matter if you wait a
second or so you will soon be moving the same speed as the current and that
will become irrelevant).. In other words I wouldn't be able to know which
side to choose to roll up on anyway.

>>Where is your paddle when you start this power stroke under the deck, on
the
opposite side of the boat to the side you have floated up on? <<

Yes, if I need to use this technique that is always the case. If it was not
I would just roll up on the side that I'm already closest to being ready to
roll up on.


>>Your body
changes sides, does the paddle?<<

In trying to change the paddle from one side to the other it also moves my
body to the opposite side and I'm in the same predicament. I have gone back
and forth from one side to the other several times before running out of air
and bailing when I had too much flotation on my upper body.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com

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Received on Fri Sep 08 2000 - 03:52:47 PDT

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