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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: SanJuan Safety...
Posted By: David In Response To: Re: SanJuan Safety... (M. Hamilton)
Date: Wednesday, 6 September 2000, at 12:02 a.m.
: David, you are correct about the San Juans! You mention the book Deep Trouble
: by George Gronseth and Matt Broze. George is a good friend and I teach his
: surf classes for him. There are a lot of hazards up here which is why I'm
: such a fanatic about being prepared for cold water immersion and learning
: to be a skilled paddler. This includes soft skills such as navigation,
: rules of the road, reading the water etc.. I run a water taxi up here and
: cater to mostly kayakers. The real service is that I can get them safely
: where they want to be. You would not believe what I see up here with
: kayakers! Cotton clothes, rented boats, crossing major commercial traffic
: lanes in the fog, no idea about current etc.. My point is that unless our
: industry does a better job of preparing people to enjoy sea kayaking more
: will die, and the Coast Guard will regulate us! When I went through
: training for my Coast Guard Masters license I was amazed at the bad
: attitude about kayakers from professional mariners in nautical school!! We
: are seen as poorly prepared idiots. I would rank most kayak schools I've
: seen as pretty poor at really preparing people. Though I think the whole
: BCU gig is classic British behavior, it does establish some sort of skill
: base. God those guys like their structure and patches. It's all good
: natured though, and does a lot of good. It is the guys like our friends
: here that go out and are driven to learn skills that will be safe. Tide
: rips are great fun! The last I'll say is that I was amused when I visited
: a site that explained this whole BCU rating system. I keep hearing about
: it so I explored. What they call a five star is simply a competent West
: Coast B.C. or Alaska guide.. It was funny to read that few Americans
: would, or could achieve this, as we simply didn't have the conditions to
: gain this level. Hey guys, ever been to Cape Scott? Outer coast of the
: Charlottes? The world record tidal rapids of the inner B.C. Coast?
: Solander Island? ALASKA!! Perhaps they meant the East Coast. But surely
: there are tough waters in Maine etc..Well spoken. I heard that the CG calls kayaks "floating coffins", and given your description of kayakers you encounter, they are not far off. Considering a cheapo $200 weekend course can prevent so much ill-prepardedness, it is particularly irksome. Cape Scott? Gadzooks, rock and roll heaven, stuck there windbound for 3 days last time! Charlottes, bring your weather radio. I know what you mean about the BCU, perhaps exemplified best by Hutchison's "All-In" rescue (give me a break). But they do emphasize getting that rudder out of the water, and at least they put a nice paddle rest system on most boats, and that foot operated bilge pump is a good idea. But there is a kind of macho Brit attitude about it all. (I am not down on Brits, learned to climb with a Scot, and they are safety freaks deep inside). Nonetheless, some of our instructors are BCU certified and they certainly know how to handle their boats. I just wish they could admit that there are times to drop the rudder in the water, and times not to. I almost never use a rudder, but it can be godsend in persistant cross winds, alot of Brit boats don't have rudders, although they sometimes descend to the use of skegs.
So you teach with George G? Great opportunity. Must be a very interesting guy, he and Matt have done so much for the sport. When George or Matt speak, I listen, they have such a good balance of safety and skill. Matt's site is excellent, one of the best tutorials on kayak safety out there.
I am sure that San Juans are beautiful kayaking. But even some cursory paddles around the Discovery Islands off of Victoria and around Salt Spring Island showed me how tough these waters can be. I prefer my tides coming from one direction. To be honest, I am happiest in the Broken Islands and similar protected waters; where I can work the waves when I want, and retreat to general site-seeing when I get tired.
I have had so many students this summer coming for classes after big mishaps on our own Georgian Bay here in Ontario. One particularly bad spot, that looks like a happy little paddle to the uninitiated is Collins Inlet near Philip Edward Island. Two parties reported search and rescue operations. In one case a relatively inexperienced paddler was leading some friends on a trip, got into wind about 1/2 hour out from the inlet, 2 boats capsized, and he found himself unable to turn the boat around, period, to effect rescue or anything else. S and R pulled them off the rocks after a long night. The second group, launching from the same spot, capsized in the same area in winds. The trip leader tried to perform a T rescue. He was unable to approach the capsized vessel properly, and ended up putting his bow right through the capsized vessel's hull! I hate the goddamed T-rescue, it inspires false confidence, is a bugger to do with a loaded boat, shredded my spray skirt to pieces just demo-ing it in class. We spent a long time with these folks, going over rescues, and how to edge the boat to turn in winds. Rudders are useless in many high wind conditions, and there is no substitute for good edging of the boat.
So I feel a moral rightness about teaching, that maybe, just maybe, I saved someone from this kind of nightmare. That is why this techniques board is so valuable, and why I get so much satisfaction from reading and posting here. We are preventing "floating coffin" syndrome. Three cheers for all of us here, and I hope we can save some more lives, as melodramatic as that sounds.
Cheers,
David
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