Sea kayaking is my main joy. That be for leisure, challenge or skills - sea kayaking adapts to your needs. Preferably in a party of good friends, constantly developing and sparring.
(we all know what the fastest optimal is: Reentry and roll - but if this is not an option for you, you may find these lines interesting)
Due to an upcoming cold-water course, it is highly relevant for me to fine-tune my standard deep-sea rescue. Having thoughts like Seakayaking Cornwall, that a casualty not necessary is a victim, I and Katrina, headed for the beach this sunny Wednesday, to test out some ideas about what oneself can do to minimize the time in the (cold) water. The result was quite impressive I think.!
Bail out of your 'vessel'.
Yell for you buddy.
Make your way to the bow, by pulling the boat by its lines.
Empty the boat.
Make your way aft. Again, you do not swim, you pull the boat. Fast.!
The paddle can either be secured under the bungees (takes some time), or be used for support all the way.
Time spent, less than 45sec to get 80% of your body out of the water..!!
(by this time there is a fair chance that your buddy is ready to support your kayak)
In the roughest conditions you might want to stay at your bow, but anyway, always empty your boat and turn it upright. I know from experience that one can climb the rear-deck in quite rough conditions - the tricky part may be to get your bum into 'the pit'. But your safe position behind the cockpit is a fine dry place to wait for your buddy, stabilizing your kayak for the last bit: Get you into the seat, emptying (if needed), sprayskirt....
In more gentle conditions you might as well complete this ladder/cowboy rescue yourself, all the way, into the cockpit. Still, it may be handy with a buddy to stabilize during pumping, sprayskirt, etc...
From this it looks like 'we' should teach our student to be much more active under a 'swim' - right from day one. Being able to do as much as possible of the rescue yourself, only makes it all so much faster.
Few, but very important things, should be avoided, that it significant can slow down an actual rescue:
Rescuer gets the rear end of the boat
Boat is still up side down
(A lot of) water in the boat
Three things, I believe, that are the swimmers responsibility to sort out, before the rescuer appears on the scene..!!
Linking, or combining strokes, if possible without taking the paddle out of the water, is something we all (more or less), do all the time - without thinking much about it.: Forward sweep to stern rudder, bow rudder to forward stroke, low brace turn to forward stroke, etc.....
Why don't we push it a little further, still trying to make is useful..?? If for no other reason, than becourse it is fun, challenging and enhances your paddle-awereness.
The examples below gets very complex to look at that they are pinned very much down - in reality it is not that complex.!
Left edge. Left sweep. Right bow rudder. Stop turn by changing edge and slide paddle back, to breifly engage a stern rudder. Slide paddle to position for a hanging draw.
This is of course not true, in fact they help me to stay 'sharp'. As recently, I and a pair of friend met up at Strib Fyr - with the intentions of having a good time.
This we had, a good time - current against wind gave the conditions we were looking for.
Then, when we were back on solid ground, one of them youngsters said: "We ought to practice self-rescues, and the like, in these conditions."
Annoyingly, she was absolutely right..!! Next time, promise......
I wonder what the fuss is all about. Oh, yeah: "to cross or not to cross" :-)
There are, for some reason, strong opinions against the serie ("serie" that you can do a lot more with the paddle in the 'wrong' side - cross hanging-draw i.e, while you are at it). I do not see any reason for this - I mean some people might not 'like' them, but why bother with the rest of us..??
I do like them a lot that you can pull (cross bow-rudder) much harder, than you can push sideways (bow-rudder), as an extra benefit you are able to really 'hang' in the stroke.
One of my favorite uses of it, is when heading towards the sea again, after a surf: Initiate the turn as usual and just let the cross bow-rudder hang there as long as needed/effective.
As seen on the picture I also try to prevent broaching with it.
I would say, even if you do not want to use them, do practise them, that they add good trunkrotation, boat and paddle sense (BBB) to your skills - see it as just an other tool.
