Re: [Paddlewise] Dumpie was on vacation

Hi Raphael

I watched the video of you in the surf. First as it loaded a bit at a time,
so I got to look at it the first time in very slow stop action sequences.
I'd like to add a few more suggestions to the good one that Scott made about
keeping paddling.

At one point the frame that lingered, while I waited for the video to load
further, showed you with your pushing wrist bent downward to your hand on
the shaft. If you do this every time you push (to hold your hands fixed on
the paddle shaft) your stroke won't be as strong as it could be if you
rotated it on the shaft enough to push with a straight wrist (with paddle
shaft center wrist center and elbow along a straight line).

When faced with a wave you can see is a big one, the best strategy is
usually not to sit there awe stricken but to paddle as hard as you can out
towards it. If you have the choice, angling some to where it looks like it
will break the latest (or the smallest) can also help. Sitting there waiting
for it to break before it gets to you is much more likely to end in disaster
as the big ones tend to stand up longer before breaking and you are more
likely waiting in the big ones break zone (or later high turbulence zone if
it breaks just in front of you) and will have no momentum to help carry you
through it. Rolling over just before it hits can be a good tactic (if the
wave isn't too big or your body is going to be hit full force by the falling
water from a dumper) but that will work just as well if not better if you
have been paddling hard to meet the wave first. Most likely if you paddle
hard toward the wave you will make it over before it peaks over vertical and
you will have a good "ski jump" off the crest to a landing in the trough
behind it.

BTW, you are lucky to still have your front teeth (on either wave) and
didn't get the wind knocked out of you as well (by the biggest wave).
Holding your paddle in front of you is a no-no when a breaker hits, as is
taking a wave while sitting upright. In the video it looked like you are
paddling with a 45 degree or less feather Euro paddle as well. This can be
especially dangerous in surf big enough to break much over your head. You
also wrote of one of the disadvantages of that when you mentioned the
elongation of your spine while trying to hold on to the paddle with both
hands. The wave lifts the boat while the paddle blades are pulled down by
the tumbling breaker. The closer to 0 degree feather you use the harder the
pull is likely to be. Even with a 90 degree feather it is often prudent to
let the paddle go with the hand that first gets yanked. One reason is that
any paddle can also snag the bottom. I have no experience with unfeathered
paddles or 45 degree paddles when paddling in surf but many times I've held
a 75 or 90 degree  paddle tightly with one hand while letting my wrist be
limp so the paddle was free to twist and flop around during the worst
turbulence. I'm not sure if one could hang on to an unfeathered paddle
(where the wave tugs at both blades at once) by letting go with one hand.
Letting go is still better than a shoulder or back injury that can result if
your paddle is tugged violently enough while you have a death grip on it
with both hands. I don't recall ever totally losing my paddle while holding
it with only one hand in surf and it was easy to find a grip with the other
hand again and set-up to roll once the worst turbulence has passed by.
During the roll after the smaller breaker on the video you obviously had to
let go of the paddle for a bit anyway to get into the Pawlatta roll position
(hand on the end of the blade) you rolled with. The Pawlatta was my original
"last resort" roll or when failing to roll the first try could have had
serious consequences. Since those earliest kayaking days I only resorted to
sliding my hand down the shaft far enough that I can feel the blade (and pin
that blade against the boat to be able to hold the set up position in heavy
turbulence).

Getting back to your lucky dentition, there is a way to avoid getting the
paddle shaft slammed into your teeth, face, or neck (where it is likely to
do serious damage to you especially if the wave can hit both blades solidly
at the same time as is common with unfeathered paddles). If the wave slams
it across your torso it is more likely to do serious damage to the paddle.
how you avoid this is to point the paddle directly into the wave just as it
hits. If the wave is not over your head holding the paddle up over the wave
can work as well to keep the wave from hitting the paddle. If I did that I
would likely turn my body to one side so as to have a narrower profile for
the wave to hit. However once the waves are big enough to break over your
head then what worked best for me was at the last second before impact was
to bend forward from the waist I could and duck my head to near the deck
while at the same time finishing the last hard paddle stroke to end up in
the roll position with the paddle pointed into the wave and held against the
side of the kayak. This reduces your profile so you are not hit as hard (or
in as vulnerable area as your gut) and so you keep better momentum to help
carry you through the zone of maximum impact. next you immediately start to
paddle as hard as you can again so as to try to not be carried back by the
crest of the broken wave. looking at the first wave that pushes you back it
looks like much of that push was because your paddle blades were exposed to
the force of the moving water as well as your entire torso.

You were in a very vulnerable position when the big wave was bearing down on
you but you were extremely lucky that it didn't break about a second sooner.
You were just beyond the worst dump zone when it hit so most of the force
went over your head and behind your kayak (or onto the back deck) rather
than hit your very exposed paddle and midsection. I'm sure you were
extremely Maytagged by that breaker but you didn't really take the full
force of the hit from the falling water. While tipping over just before a
bigger wave hits (if it has just broken or is about to dump in your lap) is
often a good strategy. I can tell you from personal experience that that
strategy has its limits and the second wave in the video may have been just
big enough to test them. I may be disagreeing with Scott here about whether
you could have gotten through the biggest breaker. Unless you paddled out
fast enough to beat the break I don't think many paddlers could have gotten
through that breaker once it had gone beyond vertical and at least until the
worst turbulence after the dump had settled down a bit. If you had turned
over just as that wave hit you most likely you would have done an outside
loop and found yourself going over the falls right side up while facing the
beach. Having experienced this outside loop once when I rolled to avoid the
impact of a really big wave I can tell you that if you can miss the impact
zone on a big breaker I think the inside loop (which I've done many times)
is the far better alternative as you get to experience the violence in the
more protected fetal position rather than having been stretched out by the
outside rotation). I had recently been practicing the tip over and roll back
up technique on smaller breakers (in the 4 to 6 foot range) but when faced
with the biggest dumper of my life breaking right on me I remember thinking:
"This time for real". Like you I had gotten inside the dump wall but then
went into the outside loop. I recall breaking the surface right side up and
opening my eyes just as I was going over the falls, momentarily weightless
and stretched bolt upright by the sudden rotation inside the dump. after
that Maytagging the only thing still holding me to the cockpit was my feet
and the spraydeck. I managed to slide back in and roll as I knew I didn't
want to be swimming in breakers that big. The kayak could get me out of
there so much faster than swimming.

I've not tried this myself but some good kayak surfers lay on the back deck
while holding the paddle up overhead and pointed into the wave. This may
allow them and lower their profile even more than ducking forward for
slipping through a broken wave but one shouldn't try this unless they have a
low back deck and backrest, a flexible spine (and probably nose plugs).

The last section of the "Paddling" manual on our website "Ocean Surf" has a
lot of other tips for dealing with surf conditions that Cam and I mostly
learned the hard way.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com
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