RE: [Paddlewise] Speaking of Safety (Personal Tethers)

From: John Fereira <jaf30_at_cornell.edu>
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 08:19:24 -0500
At 04:30 PM 1/26/02 +1100, PeterO wrote:
>Thomas Joyce wrote: -
>>have never thought of tying myself to the kayak,
>>although I understand the logic for a solo paddler
>>on a long trip.)  Has anyone else used Duff's
>>system, or thought about it and rejected it?
>
>G'day,
>
>There was a long debate about this inspired by Lone Madsen's death (ref Sea
>Kayaker June 1999), which I compiled and put on the Paddlewise web page
>http://www.paddlewise.net/topics/boatequip/tethers.html. Some of us
>concluded (not everybody) that if out at sea in rough weather its probably a
>good idea but would be undesirable when coming in through the surf. Doug
>Lloyd also wrote a comprehensive article "Staying connected - the case for
>tethers" in Sea Kayaker in February 2000.
>
>Audrey Sutherland uses a personal or boat tether - wish I could find some of
>her books/reports?

Both of her books are available through Amazon.com.   They're called
"Paddling My Own Canoe", and "Paddling Hawaii".   I haven't read her books
but Ive been to one of her slide show presentations.  She spent quite a bit
ot time describing her paddle and boat tethers and brought along her boat
and tethers to show how she hooked them up.   The most important point in
her presentation was that she just doesn't cut up some rope and attach them
to points on the boat and then go out and paddle.   She practices wet exits
and reentries over and over and over in rough conditions with the tethers
attached.   

 Like any other piece of safefy equipment, owning a tether system isn't
enough.   One needs to practice using it as well.   I wonder how many
people buy a wet suit and paddlefloat and think, ok, now I'm safe if I go
out in cold water, but have never tried capsizing and doing a reentry in
cold water.

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Received on Sat Jan 26 2002 - 05:29:23 PST

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