Re: [Paddlewise] Folding Kayaks: Experience In Surf

Dave Kruger wrote:

>Who has brought their folding kayak through surf over about 3 feet in height?
>What was your experience?
>Was your broach controllable?
>Anything break?
>Did you have to swim the boat in?
>Dave Kruger
>
Dave, I've landed through surf about 3m high (about 10ft) in Greece. I 
spent several days just playing in that surf, landing and going out 
again and again.
The boat I was using was a Nautiraid Grand raid 520, 17ft boat. For 
those who don't know it, it's a folding double, usable as a single. It 
has big open cockpit like Klepper does, covered with a spraydeck which 
has a cockpit ring to fit the normal sprayskirt onto.
I had no great problems to put in, just got the boat bow-on to the surf, 
jumped in and paddled like hell to get out of the zone.
Landing was not difficult, but was "interesting" when trying to 
side-surf in, mind you, it was my first attempt at side surfing. The GR 
520 is not the kind of boat you want for side-surfing.
Landing bow first was possible (soft sand), but not a good idea, the 
surf pushing the stern sideways much too hard as soon as the bow touched 
sand.
The best landings were stern first. The GR 520 with the rudder lifted 
will turn in it's own length, so it's quite easy to do a 180 degree turn 
on top of the last or last but one roller before hitting the beach. the 
second the stern touched, I'd jump out, grab the bow and lean my weight 
on it. The surf then pushed the boat up the beach, with me as sea anchor 
at  the bow.
Broaching was controllable and easy to get out of, if I was still a few 
yards from the shore, but the boat being very wide, I had to almost 
throw myself out of the boat to get the boat on it's side and do a sharp 
reverse sweep stroke at the same time.
No breakages! Two very bruised thighs after a few hours playing. Playing 
rough, I suppose ;)
Cheers,
Kevin.
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