Back at the Secret Beach, the dock was free so K&B used it to land on. I decided to do another wet exit right by the shore. Now I'm feeling lucky to be writing this! My feet had slipped off my pegs and with my legs tight in the braces, I couldn't get them back on. Without something to push on, I found myself upside down and having trouble getting out. I think I was mostly out of the boat, but my legs were leveraged against the braces and wouldn't come out. I felt a twinge of panic starting, but was actually able to roll up enough to grab a breath and then while upside down again, concentrate on freeing my legs. When I came up a concerned Barb was watching from the dock almost ready to come in after me. It quickly made me realize how even experienced paddlers can get into trouble. Both this boat and my Delfin are tight fits for me, but at least on the Delfin, I've removed the thigh braces. That will be my next mod on the GTS before it goes out again. What do the whitewater kayakers do? They are the ones who seem to be almost glued into their boats! I've always been careful to practice my first wet exit from a boat with people around, but once I've shown I could do it, I've taken them for granted. Might be time to consider some other possible entanglements and practice this most basic of moves more often. After having the issue of the air in my drysuit causing a bit of an issue by rushing to the seat area when upside down, I agree! Things happen which are not predictable, and the more we practice, the more likely we are to have them happen when others can help! I had one occurrence where my carabiner on my tow belt managed to hook onto the strap for my backband of my seat when I was reentering the kayak! This was a practice capsize and reentry, and it took a minute or more for me to figure out why I simply could not get into the boat! If I had re-capsized at that point, I probably would have drowned, since I would not have recognized the tow belt as the problem, so would not have worked the quick release. I understand that one of the well known Pacific NW kayak instructors had to cut a a kayaker out of her drysuit, after the pull on the women's relief zipper hung up in the cockpit when capsized. Mark Sanders www.sandmarks.net Thanks for not drowning! We would miss your posts, and where would my excuse be to come down to California next year? Pam in Washington State, heading to the Kayak Symposium in Port Townsend later this week! Craig is bringing the hot chocolate! **************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014) *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Sep 15 2008 - 21:22:56 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:30 PDT