Re: [Paddlewise] Rolling in surf

Scott,

Very clear... and thanks so much for your ideas and explanation! I found 
this to be very helpful. You took some time. The reason I posed the 
question was that I was involved in a rather humbling incident yesterday. I 
paddle a lot, all year round... well maybe not lots compared to some, but 
I've logged 900 miles in 24 months, average five or six miles a trip... 
ocean venue... off the Maine coast. Well I generally paddle solo, and have 
a new Chatham 16 which has inspired lots of confidence in the past four 
months. My other boats are a Tempest 170 and a Gulfstream. Anyway, I often 
paddle out between two long jetties, and mostly don't really know what the 
seas will be like until I get beyond the ends of them. This time, I found 
myself diving up and over 7 foot steep swells, close trains with some other 
mixed currents. All was OK (albeit high tension on my part) until I turned 
and had the waves at my stern; you see, I decided to head back into the 
harbor, discretion being the better part of valor. The tide was ebbing out 
and (as mentioned) the rollers were sternwise. I had trouble keeping a 
strait bow and broached just enough, so that when I attempted a low brace 
on my port side, I slowly went over. Should have been good enough on that 
brace, but executed it poorly. I'm still very intermediate in skill.

Tried rolling twice, onside (my right), the ebb hopefully helping me up, 
but with seas waves coming opposite... rollers coming at my hull. Couldn't 
get up. Now I do have a decent onside roll, but stress or seas made me lose 
it. I wet-exited and couldn't swim the boat in to shore due to the 
combination of outgoing current and very high swell. My plan was to try a 
re-entry and roll... or a paddlefloat on the offshore side of the boat. As 
luck would have it, a small lobster boat helped out, first by trying to tow 
me in. I had the boat with one hand, the tow rope with the other. Too 
difficult! Finally the boat hauled me in and we towed the kayak. I lost 
only a cap and a bilge pump.

I was properly outfitted, and the cool water was not a problem (60 F). but 
this incident taught me lots. I now think about all the times I've been 
further from help and solo paddling. I think about installing a painter 
line, long enough to haul the boat if I'm reasonably close to shore (which 
mostly I am). I think about some boogie board swim fins to make the swim 
easier. I think about practicing my rolls more often, and my other 
self-rescues more regularly. Most of all, I think about being more 
cautious, in spite of all the well-ending solo paddles. I know that it only 
takes one bad incident to negate all the good trips I've had.

Tom

At 03:11 PM 8/1/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> >Scott, Help me out with this a bit, since I have little experience and
>cannot picture it clearly. Are you saying that it's easier if the wave is
>approaching the hull from off shore and you are rolling up on the
>beach/shore side? Sorry if I seem obtuse here :)<
>
>
>    No, just the opposite. Understand that the water in the surf zone is
>being pulled OFF the beach, towards the open ocean, and UP the face of the
>wave. So essentially the current directly in front of the wave is heading
>away from the beach and out to sea. Now, if you are sitting in your boat
>parallel to the beach and the oncoming wave then you will actually find it
>difficult to capsize INTO the wave as the water moving up it's face will
>tend to support you. If your boat is on the crest of the wave, or past the
>crest on the back of the wave, then you can easily capsize away from the
>beach on the back of the wave, as there is no real current doing anything we
>care about back there. All the current is in front of the wave.


...


>pleted their first roll, and they usually don't even know how they did
>it!
>    So in a very long winded answer to your question, when rolling in the
>surf you will most likely capsize down wave, towards the shore, and roll
>back up INTO the face of the wave, with the waves help. Either that or just
>sit tight for ten seconds or so until the wave passes you by, and then you
>can roll up on either side of the boat you choose.
>    I hope this is clear. I know this can be a little confusing. It's a whole
>lot easier to describe at the beach where I can draw diagrams and such in
>the sand.
>
>Scott
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