Hi friends, I read the trip reports of California kayaking on that September weekend and there was no carnage. I thought it was a bit unusual, but found out why right away. I tried playing with my surfing kayak Delfin at the Zicatela beach, South of Mexico in Puerto Escondido's Oaxaca Pacific Ocean prettiest beach. Coincidentally there was an international surfing contest. Waves were 16 to 19 feet with beautiful tubes. I was never going to run those. My skills are not for that kind of challenge as you will see. Only the idea of paddling through the breakers chilled my spine. So I went to one edge of the bay expecting smaller waves more suitable to my degree of competence and fear. Fortunately my friend Antonino was there to film the outing and was lucky enough to find out where Dumpie was. I can not say the same in regard to my luck since I also found out where Dumpy was on vacation. Less words and more action. You can see the whole thing in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5uotQzq-Ws Let me just mention that when the wave hit and the baot jumped to the surface and the paddle sinked to the bottom I felt a clear elongation of my spine, that I thought was bad, but I did not let go boat or paddle. They were my ticket to safety. So after hell quieted down I rolled just in time to receive the next of the set that took me straight to the beach, and with that I had enough for the day. Anyway there is no bigger pleasure than surfing waves and I will have to learn more in two directions. One on my skills and two, in finding out where dumpy is fooling around. Lessons learned. 1.- Need some lessons in kayak surfing. 2.- My body and boat are pretty sturdy. 3.- When a breaker is going to fall on me, I MUST ROLL beforehand. I will have to roll anyway. 4.- My roll passed the test three times, under more than realistic conditions. 5.- It was fun. I can say that after counting all my bones. 6.- It is always good to have a good photographer around. Best Regards Rafael. Mexico rafaelmier_at_silidriel.com rmiermaza_at_hotmail.com mayanseas_at_prodigy.net.mx www.silidriel.com <http://www.silidriel.com/> www.mayanseas.com <http://www.mayanseas.com/> ph 52-442-217-3095 52-442-217-3093 nextel 52-442-148-0323 mobile 52-442-230-1776 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Rafael, Awesome video. I could hear myself going "ouch" when you got nailed by Dumpy. I was glad to hear that he is on vacation, that explains why I have only been upside down intentionally for the last few weeks. Please make him welcome and invite him to stay. Steve Holtzman *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Rafael, What fun having your surfing on video! I watched it and would like to make a quick comment on your technique if you don't mind. In both of your capsizes in the clip you can clearly see that as you reached the waves you stopped paddling. In the first, smaller wave, you even got pushed backwards while you sat there and did nothing. Had you approached each wave by aggressively trying to paddle through them then I'm betting you would have made it on both. Even if you start to back surf you want to continue to claw at the water and try to pull yourself through it. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Give it a try and see if this helps. Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Scott wrote ..... In both of your capsizes in the clip you can clearly see that as you reached the waves you stopped paddling. In the first, smaller wave, you even got pushed backwards while you sat there and did nothing....... Thanks Scott, I will take your advise seriously. On the first wave I think i could have negotiated the wave by hard paddling. On the second case I did not sit and did nothing, I was praying like crazy. :-) I felt completely hopeless. But you are right, the worst thing is the lack of action, of course you are reserving it for all the fast action that will come in a few more seconds. :-). I have thought about three actions. 1.- Paddle harder, as you suggest. 2.- Measure and time the waves better to avoid being stranded in the zero zone, where it seems like no effort will liberate you from disaster. 3.- If it ever happens again, roll before the blast. Thanks and best regards, Rafael. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Matt, Your analysis is very interesting in several ways. I got from it some very good counsel and some things I shall never forget to do under similar conditions, which I hope not to find again. The most valuable advise is to paddle to the wave and face the vertical wall, which is always a better approach than to sit where it falls on you. It makes a lot of sense to face it and roll as you get to it. Then you will travel with the rising wall and with the body resistance you will stay behind the crashing soup. As a swimmer I used to float horizontal, with head towards the wave and as it made the tube, would lift me up and keep me behind it. I would stay with arms open and wait for the lift, stand vertical on the green wall, and then just rest in the calm waters watching the wave thundering to shore. The second has to do with protecting the face from the paddle pushed by the wave. It is a good advise. Now let me tell you that my paddle is a Lendhal with 70 degrees feather. The sun hitting in front doesn4t allow a clear picture and the paddle looks unfeathered but it was feathered. The other advise is to paddle more agressively, as Scott said, at all times while in the surf. Both while going out and when catching a wave. I seemed to be slow all the time with a poor power stroke. Now, all that said, let me tell you that the wave was very very big, as compared to the other waves I had been running in that day, in that section of the beach. As you can see in the video, as I was resting I turned around and saw the big swell forming, I decided to go for it, and as I started turning it looked to me that I was not going to get there on time and it kept growing and growing, so at one time I decided to turn and go back but it seemed too late also. So I just froze. The situation was beyond my previous experience and didn't know what the best course of action would be. Now I must mentalize that next time I must paddle hard to it, and if it seems obvious that I will not go across, then I should go to hit it, roll and try to expose the least cross section (leaning backward or forward) so as to keep going and let the energy part of the wave pass by. Regarding the paddle in the turn moil, let me tell you that, as you suggest, I had the paddle only in one hand, which was my right hand, and I held very hard to it. Still the spine elongation was from the pull on only that hand. I didn't want to let the paddle go, for no reason. If you see the video in detail you'll see that on the first scene immediately after the blast the kayak emerges to the surface, almost instantly. Showed that floating bodies react to floatation forces immediately. My tight fit in the boat kept me in it. So part of my body went up with the boat and part was going down with the paddle. I think it is almost impossible to hold the paddle with both hands under those conditions. In one hand it twists your arm and wrist in almost all directions, but can align better to the forces. It becomes the challenge of the moment to stay with it. Funny though during those seconds in that fight, there is a certain feeling of pleasure or happiness to the right response to the challenge, in the same manner as few seconds earlier the feeling was of fear at the imminent crash, and then after the roll, there is was feeling of accomplishment or success, for having come out of the threat complete and in control, finally the last feeling is of humbleness and gratitude, because things could have been much worse. Thanks for your advise. Best Regards, Rafael Mexico. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 10/29/2006 11:02:14 PM Pacific Standard Time, mkayaks_at_oz.net writes: 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). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you have a high performance surf boat (many river boats are similar in this respect) there isn't enough buoyancy in the back to do that. Surf boats carry all the buoyancy forward. If you tried to weight the stern as the wave curled over head you'd get crushed. I've been through some very big tubey stuff just by leaning forward and at the last possible, teeny weeniest second put the paddle tight along side the hull and head along the deck. I've popped right through when I expected otherwise. Bill Mattos wrote an excellent book called Kayak Surfing, ISBN 0-9547061-0-2. I refer back to it alot and if surf is your thing I would track down a copy. Cheers, Rob G *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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