Joel at a pool session said people say a paddle float rescue is not possible in rough water. Here is a series of five photos that prove otherwise – click here.
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It was my first time in surf on the West Coast, at a break near Santa Cruz. A friend was surfing on a surf board and I headed out with him. We rendezvoused outside of the break and I was facing towards shore. Big mistake, you never want to turn your back on the ocean. Even though we were away from line up, a wave came through breaking further out than most. My friend yelled a warning then got away from me, he was more threatened by my boat than the breaking wave. I almost managed to get out of its way, but the wave broke as I climbed over it and in its aftermath, I capsized.
Coming out of the boat, the first thing I did was swim the boat further out. A paddle float takes time to do and I wanted to get away from any other breaking waves. My friend came on over on his board and asked if he could help. I was just climbing back into the cockpit and turning around when he yelled again, another wave was breaking. Leaning onto the paddle float, I stayed upright on that wave and an even bigger one behind it. After that I pumped out the boat and put on the sprayskirt.
Size of the waves? The ones breaking where 6-8′ and there were smaller ones steepening up to get ready to break.
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Of course a paddle float rescue is possible in rough water. The key ingredient? practice, just like any other rescue.
I believe the dislike of paddle floats is a result of the ocean (small diameter) cockpits that most British boats had before the mid-90s. Small was considered better as sprayskirt technology could not guarantee the skirt would stay on a larger cockpit in rough water. Also, a deck mounted pump on the front deck or a knee tube reduced cockpit space and like the ocean cockpit, made it challenging/impossible for someone to rotate with their legs in the cockpit. Hence the ‘crab crawl’ re-entry on assisted rescues that avoided the need to rotate was used during that time.
Nigel Dennis’s first boat was the Romany and was one of the first British boats to use a keyhole cockpit. Now, it is rare outside of Greenland style kayaks to see an ocean cockpit. Knee tubes were replaced by day hatches. The crab crawl re-entry is rarely taught by instructors anymore. About the only thing still seen from back then is the deck pump mounted on the front deck.
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Best to watch out what people say, there is a lot of free advice out there that is based on ignorance. Instead go out and try it yourself, brainstorm with friends, take lessons, etc. After all, it is experience combined with knowledge that leads to innovation.
sam