[Paddlewise] Entrapment - emergency release of spray deck

I posted on WCP about this and have had some interesting responses.

First... I think it's important to note that almost every paddler who uses a
spray deck has inadvertently folded the toggle/loop under the deck but there
has not been much focus on this potentially deadly problem.

One paddler puts his drytop over his spray deck tunnel which would make the
"hand down the tunnel" release technique virtually impossible to do in time;
especially when you add in the fact that his PFD goes then goes over both of
them.

An alternative technque is to pinch down at the side of the kayak cockpit
where the tension of the spray deck and cockpit curvature is at a minimum. I
have not tried this method but at least one other paddler says that this is
the way he always removes his spray deck so that he'd do it automatically if
he needed to.

One suggestion was to have spray deck manufacturers sew in a release handle
at the side attached at the rand (the "bungee" area of your spray deck) and
attached again at some point inboard. This would provide a release point
that could not be folded under.

The next time you paddle pretend that you can't release your spray deck in
the usual way and try some alternatives. You need not be in the water (or
upside down) to do this; in fact it's probably much better not to be but you
do need to be dressed for paddling as you would usually be. See how long it
takes you to get out.

Then let us know what worked and what didn't.


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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