December 31, 2000

Self Rescue for Big Guys (and Gals)

"This article first appeared on 'Wes Boyd's Kayak Place' website and is republished with permission. All articles in this category were authored by Wes Boyd unless otherwise noted. [Woody]"

It was a hot summer day. The breeze was nothing to write home about, and the waves on the small inland lake maybe got as high as six inches, but we were hanging around just outside the "no wake" buoy where a channel came from another small lake, and we were looking for fun. Boats came out of the channel every few minutes, and their drivers would cob open the throttle to race the mile or so down the lake. In the fifty yards or so where the boat was plowing, trying to get up on a plane, there were some nice waves -- small stuff, but surfable.

We were getting set to knock it off and head back to the launch site when a guy came out of the channel in a big, wide wakeboarding boat. When he cobbed that sucker open, he set up about as big a wake as I've ever seen on that lake, maybe three feet at its best, but fast and steep. I got up on the wake, and was getting a good ride, but noticed that there was a higher, steeper section a few yards to the right. I tried to move sideways on the wave a little to get into the bigger stuff, but turned a little too much, and before I could swear or lay out a good brace, I was windowshaded so quickly I was thrown out of the boat.

At least the water felt good. Though I was out of the boat, the objective conditions were good. The water temperature wasn't a concern, I was close to shore, the lake was pretty close to flat, I had other kayakers nearby, and we'd worked on rescues not long before. If you've got to dump one, that's about the best possible conditions. I didn't even feel the need to yank the ripcord on my inflatable PFD.

Let's face it, I had been looking for trouble, and found it, so I couldn't complain. Capsizing can happen. I could have been caught by that wave without playing on it. I could have -- well, a lot of things.

Capsizes are relatively rare if you're operating halfway conservatively, but you have to at least give some allowance for the possibility of it happening. That's why most kayaking instructors give at least lip service to rescue and re-entry instruction, and why at least some of us work on rolls.

I'll be honest -- I don't work on rolling, rescue, and recovery as much as I should. Few of us do. There's a huge array of rescue techniques and tools out there, and a few people practice at them seriously, but most kayakers don't, or only do it occasionally.

In general, the techniques aren't difficult, but they do require practice. They especially require practice for the larger kayaker, since several techniques beloved by the instructors or lovingly detailed in the books just don't work well in the field for the big guy and gal.

Since I'm no expert in this field, I'm going to stay away from a blow-by-blow description of most of them, since there are better people out there to learn from. I'm going to interject one warning, though: while there are instructors out there, there are some that are not going to understand the physical problems of big people, or are going to want to try. Find someone else, someone that's willing to work with you. Failing that, though, a lot of people have learned these techniques, even up through rolling, from books and from working it out by themselves or in small groups.

The Paddle Float

The paddle float self rescue is probably the most important technique to master. It's one of the easier ones, and will serve even in very bad conditions if well practiced. In general, the instructional books written by British sea kayakers are good on the rolling and group rescue points, but weak on self rescue, since most reject the paddle float. North Americans, though, realize that the paddle float is a useful tool, especially but not exclusively for those that don't have a roll.

I'm going to assume that you at least have the basic idea of a paddle float rescue. If you don't -- or even if you do -- I'd strongly recommend spending a few minutes reading Matt Broze's Using the Rescue Float. Matt is, among many other things, the guy that popularized the paddle float (he calls it a rescue float) and one of the guys that wrote "Deep Trouble", the widely-read discussion of paddling incidents. But, just for recap, you attach the float to one end of a paddle, and the paddle is put under the back deck bungees to be used as a stability aid in crawling up on the back deck of the kayak, and sliding feet first into the cockpit.

Getting up out of the water and onto the back deck is the trouble area for the bigger kayaker, since many don't have the pure arm strength to do a straight lift like many teach -- so you need to work out a solution in practice, in a pool or a warm, quiet spot near shore, and not under the gun.

One thing to try is to let your body float, bringing your feet near the surface, perhaps using the boat for a bit of support. Hook one foot over the paddle shaft before trying to pull onto the deck. Using the foot to keep yourself as horizontal as possible before giving a good pull to get up on deck, using the foot to push a little.

That may work for some people, but others find more assistance is needed. Many people turn to a stirrup arrangement to give the possibility of more push from the legs. There are many ways to do a stirrup. Broze and others suggest a loop of rope hung from the paddle shaft, with the loop six to ten inches under water, although I find a little deeper works better for me. Another way to do it is to attach a rope with a loop in the end at the proper distance to a permanent hard point in the kayak -- I have one rigged to the seat supports in my Heron. That system doesn't work as well in the Telkwa, as there isn't a good hard point, but, I carry a long loop of rope permanently tied to throw clear around the cockpit. Any one of the solutions works, although I find the paddle shaft stirrup a little more fussy to rig and use. I'd make the point, too, that a permanent hard point inside the kayak makes a good place to attach antitheft devices.

Doing a paddle float rescue can put a tremendous stress on the paddle shaft, especially until you learn what you're doing. I put some interesting bends in a cheap aluminum paddle I bought used for rescue practice. Now, I suggest a trip to a lumber yard for a 2x4, at least for the early stages of practice.

The paddle float has a number of other possible uses in a rescue, such as in aiding a handroll. Other items than a inflatable paddle float can be used in the paddle float techniques, and many kayakers carry a permanent, hard closed cell foam paddle float as a matter of course.

The paddle float rescue is not automatically good in all conditions, but will work in very bad conditions if you've practiced it enough. In any case, practicing it until you're comfortable with it will give you the confidence to move on to other techniques.

Other Techniques

Most sea kayakers don't have a roll, or at least so they think. However, with a little bit of practice, they can have something that will serve as an excellent re-entry aid for large kayakers: the paddle float re-entry and roll. With the paddle float attached to the paddle, hold the paddle next to the boat, take a deep breath, flip upside down and re-enter the boat. That's the tough part that takes practice, since it can be rather disorienting, and I frankly find it difficult. But, once inside the boat, sweep the paddle out sideways, and execute a "hip snap" and some downward sweep. The buoyancy of the paddle float makes up for a lot of sins in the execution. Once you're upright, there'll be a lot of water in the boat, but the paddle float can be used as an outrigger while you pump out. Electric pumps are nice.

Realistically, the best bet is to get a roll. Again, its something that can be learned by yourself with the help of instructional materials, or perhaps at a website like Elements of the Eskimo Roll, one of the better sites on the subject. Once you have a roll, and are a bit confident with it, you can use the re-entry and roll technique without the paddle float.

One more re-entry technique should be mentioned: the "cowboy" re-entry. A lot of people don't like it, and many say it won't work consistently, but it's worth giving a try. Basically, you push down on the stern of the boat so you can get straddle of it, and scooch your way forward, leaving your legs in the water to provide a little more stability. Balance is tricky and a paddle float might help. Rudders and hatch covers, plus stuff on the deck, is going to make it more difficult. Recently, I heard of a variation, where you work backward from the bow, facing backwards. This simplifies getting into the cockpit, although face down, and then rolling over once you're in the cockpit may be a little easier. It's one possibility in the bag of re-entry tricks, and worth a try in practice conditions, just to be a little familiar with it.

In "under-the-gun" conditions, the important thing is to keep trying. Don't give up. It's your life. If one thing doesn't work, try another. And another. There's gotta be a way.

Aided Rescues

In the rescue bag of tricks there are any number of aided rescues and their variants, where another kayaker helps with or conducts most of the rescue. You can read all about the T, the X, the H, and others in many books, and I'm not going to detail them here, but limit my discussion to two:

* The Side-By-Side Basically, the rescuer gets on the far side of the swamped kayak, and reaches over to stabilize the boat and help the victim up. The victim grabs the cockpit of the far boat for better leverage. This has worked for me -- if I have a sling attached. If not, I've managed to lift the rescuer's boat up onto the deck of my kayak.. Once again, practice helps.

* The Scoop, in which the rescuer holds the victim's kayak on its side. The victim re-enters, floating on their side but with head above water. Then, the rescuer pushes down on the victim's hull while grasping their PFD, while the victim does a hip snap, perhaps aided by a paddle float, to get upright. I haven't tried this one but it would seem to have some possibilities.

I've only touched briefly on aided rescues, and they're deserving of a longer discussion, which I'll perhaps write some one of these days.

Practice, Practice

Rescue techniques should never take the place of good sense or good judgement. There's a subtle trap with them, sometimes called "risk homeostasis". It's complicated, but to oversimplify it, most of us will accept a certain level of risk. If we improve our techniques or equipment to reduce the effects of that level of risk, we then will often accept a higher degree of risk, so we end up where we started in terms of overall danger to ourselves. There's a much better discussion of this on John Winter's Redwing Designs Page, and I'll send you there for details.

But, any kayaker should spend some time studying safety and techniques. There are several valuable discussions online of just these things, and some of the best are the discussions on Matt Broze's commerical Mariner Kayaks website. In fact, I'd have to say that the manuals section of that site is probably the best instructional resource about kayaking online, period. Take a while with it -- and it'll take a while. I've already mentioned Using the Rescue Float, but also worth reading are other sections about Kayak Rescues That Work and the broader, general range, Sea Kayaking Safety. Take your time with these, copy them to your hard drive and read them at leisure. They are worth it.

Many paddlers, myself included are lackadasical about practicing these techniques, and we shouldn't be. They are valuable tools. For any kayaker, it's worth finding a few hours to do some pool sessions or some hours on a warm day at the beach, to at least become familiar with various techniques, even if you don't practice and polish to the BCU Five Star Level. On a hot summer's day, it's a good way to play and get wet, while learning something in the process. And you might learn something that could safe your life.