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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: Breathing tube. *Pic*
Posted By: John Monroe In Response To: Re: Kayaker Death (Brian Nystrom)
Date: Friday, 30 June 2006, at 6:36 a.m.
Hi Brian,
I did e-mail Brian Schulz as you suggested to get more information about his paddling a flooded kayak but I didn’t received a reply. In my own small experiments on my pond in calm water I did paddle my SS full to brim flooded and it was very tipsy but I never fell out. Then I tried it ¾ flooded and it was much more stable as it was when ½ and ¼ flooded. One thing I found I could do with my flooded kayak was to re-inter it without a paddle float. With a life jacket on, I swam upon the back deck, and then with my legs straddled towards the bow I slid into the cockpit, twisted over and plopped into the seat. That’s a big plus in my summer of learning my kayak capabilities.
Since I am solo learning I rigged up a 2x4 that extends from my pond deck out about 10 feet with a rope tied from the end of the 2x4 and also tied just in front of my cockpit where I can easily reach it. When I am turned upside down and need to come up with assistance I just reach for the rope and pull myself up right. In trying to do a wet exit I have found out that my spray is much too tight and my second one is much too loose. I contacted Mike Patterson at Snapdragon and he will resize both for only the price of shipping. You can’t beat that.
My experience so far with the altered snorkel breathing tube isn’t finished yet. I cut the 3-foot tube down to 2 feet, which leaves the snorkel mouth peace about ear high with the end of the tube not quite touching the kayak seat. With the breathing tub full of water and the purge valve seated next to the snorkel mouth peace, when I tried to blow the water out it went out the purge valve while leaving water in the two-foot section of the breathing tube. So that didn’t work for me. I took out the purge valve and put a cork in it’s place to seal off that end of the tube but when I tried to purge the 2 feet of water in the breathing tube I couldn’t complete clear it and my lungs were out of air from the attempted purge. If I turn upside down in the kayak and the mouth piece isn’t in my mouth, the tube fills with water through the mouth piece and again it might be hard to purge the tube, but since the tube would only fill to the level of the water it was under it might purge OK. The way to avoid this is the have the mouth peace in your mouth before turning over. I will get into all of this when I get my spray skirts back.
John
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