Go Kayak Now! » Sea Kayaking Instruction

The Gales Storm Gathering Announced

kwikle — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:20:53 +0000

Four or five years ago I thought about doing a rough water sea kayaking instruction event. I pitched the idea to a few sponsors, but without much success. On a whim, right after Geneva Kayak Center reopened in it’s new location, I chatted with Ryan Rushton about organizing a rough water Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Event. Over the last few months Ryan, myself and Bill Thompson from Downwind sports in Marquette hashed out a lot of key details.

So I am super excited to announce the first annual Gales Storm Gathering in Marquette Michigan. Oct 8-10 2011.

We will open registration soon.

The super awesome part about the collaboration with Ryan and Bill has been seeing what each person brings to the table. Ryan’s guiding and coaching expertise in addition to his experience organizing the Windy City symposium brought a wealth of experience to help guide the logistics, venue and mission.

While Bill’s local knowledge, coupled with his experience running two kayaking symposiums, GLSKS and Ladies of the lake each year, (plus tons of other events like the ice climbing festival) brought a ton to the table.

My own experience with WMCKA each year at Camp Pendalouan has been great to get an idea for the pitfalls of a sea kayak symposium. That and clearly drive and enthusiasm!

The Great Lakes has a large number of sea kayaking symposiums each year.

The Gales by picking to do the event in October is hoping for the conditions that the other symposiums dread, namely wind and waves. There are many many students who come back each year to all of the symposiums above who are looking to make a grab for that next rung on the ladder.

The Great Lakes have so much to offer sea kayakers. Lake Superior being the largest freshwater lake in the world makes this even more special.

So head on over to the Gales Storm Gathering website. Registration up soon, along with other exciting details.

A very special thanks to James Heirman for the design of the Gales logo and artwork. Fasco Lives.

Directional Strokes II

kwikle — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:48:31 +0000

Directional Strokes II the awesome but unexpected sequel to Directional Strokes part I. This class will feature lots of explosions, car chases, and gun play. Come on out and see what mayhem Go Kayak Now is up to!

We will be headed out to Long Lake @ 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM for more turning strokes, draws, rudders and sweeps.

We look forward to seeing you out there. Space is limited so let me know if you plan on coming.

In the meantime this very poignant video may help solidify how cool directional strokes are for kayaking.

Kalamazoo Kayak Pool Sessions January-March

kwikle — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:10:39 +0000

The Kalamazoo Sessions have been off to a grand start. Attendance has been awesome with 12-15 people for each session. Many thanks to Ken Nesbitt and the Great Lakes Adventure Club for the enthusiastic support of Lee’s and Go Kayak Now!

A pool is often a difficult place to work on strokes. Forward strokes in a pool simply take too much space. Although draws work really well. It was great to see so many students pick up the draw stroke so quickly. I hope we can continue the enthusiasm into the outdoors and ensure we have some forward stroke, rudders, draws, and bracing to work on once the weather becomes more liquid.

This week I think we will begin working on bracing, strokes, and for those interested, advanced rescues.

20th Annual WMCKA Symposium Guest Speaker Jeff Allen

kwikle — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:30:53 +0000

Jeff Allen co-owner of Sea Kayaking Cornwall visited this year to instruct and speak. Jeff came a day early to give an instructor update for the WMCKA instructional staff. The topic this year was incident management. Jeff has written a series of articles for Ocean Paddler magazine. Jeff is also writing a book on the topic of sea survival for paddlers. The articles and Jeff’s course cover a wide range of topics. Some of the topics are familiar to sea kayakers. They cover towing, deep water rescues, and the familiar CLAP and SAFE principals of leadership on the water. What is unique to Jeff’s approach is how he challenges the familiar aphorisms of sea kayaking such as “stay in the boat”. One example of this unusual approach is when entering a landing area that is through the surf into a hazardous rocky landing spot, Jeff has proposed that like the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) that swimming yourself in through the surf zone is better than crashing in your sea kayak. This hypothesis is magnified when you have a victim, (or as Jeff has labeled them according to the military term-casualty) who cannot get themselves through the surf zone. I highly recommend reading Jeff’s articles in Ocean Paddler, and keep a sharp eye out for that book!

The course normally runs over five days, and we had one day to cover a couple of topics. Our instructor update covered rescues and towing. Jeff continued to stress a practical approach about rescues focusing on what would be best for the group as a whole. Taking the SAFE approach stop assess formulate a plan and execute. For example if a member of your group manages to take a nasty swim in a cave, rushing in like the valiant hero isn’t always the best idea. You could have two casualties instead of just one. Jeff reckons that sometimes having the casualty swim out, or having a rescuer if need be swim in is a better bet than getting another kayak in the mix. It is not revolutionary, but it does go against several hard and fast rules or at least dogma about staying in the boat.

During the course Jeff covered many ideas about sea survival and group cohesion. He demonstrated many towing concepts. And he also showed us his throw/tow rig. He was kind enough to leave me a sample rig. He is not selling them, which is sort of unusual in kayaking. He is advocating safety without a fiduciary return, which is even rarer and if possible cooler. The idea is that instead of just having a tow belt, you have a throw bag combined with a tow belt rig. So that if you had this alleged swimmer in the cave, you could throw your rope just like a white water rescue bag, and then still have one side clipped in to your belt. This way the rescuer could tow the casualty out of the cave without having to paddle in, putting themselves at risk. I will post some more details and pictures on the tow rig Jeff left with me.

We ran through some incidents on Lake Michigan near Duck Lake state park. We covered deep water t-rescues for the first hour. And readers here may be pleased to hear that the time spent in analysis was not wasted. Further we picked up some other good tips I will share at a later date.

The last and most challenging incident involved a swimmer casualty incapacitated and separated from the kayak. We separated into teams of three plus the casualty. The object was for each team to get their casualty to shore first. Our team decided on the scoop for our victim. And despite having performed this in practice recently, it is entirely different when the casualty is completely incapacitated. The hardest part was entanglement of the limbs on re-entry I had to try three times to get Luis Caro back into the boat before I got his butt in his seat. Also to get his butt in the seat all the way, I had to sit him upright and push on his shoulders to get him all the way in. We towed in fairly quickly and straight. Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin and I swapped out once for good measure. Sharon is quite strong! She hauled out pulling a rafted tow! She can come to sea with me when I am not doing well anytime. Wendy had the hardest job actually which was holding Luis’s kayak upright and keeping him out of the water. She never got a break either. Towing was probably quite easy compared to that.

Afterwards we compared notes with the other teams. There was some diversity in the approach at the beginning. One team actually opted to tow the swimmer in the water while someone towed the empty kayak. This did give them an advantage and they did get to shore first. We were third. But as a result their casualty got quite cold. Poor Steve Bailey. In the end almost everyone opted for the scoop. But as Jeff pointed out, care for the casualty does come into play as good technique. Most opted for the face down scoop, which is ironically easier, but doesn’t allow you to keep a very good eye on your victim. So while coming in third we got some bonus points for taking better care of our charge.

I would encourage anyone running a symposium to consider Jeff Allen for an incident management course. His approach is revolutionary in that it is practical and covers a wide variety of very simple tactics for sea survival. After spending a weekend with Jeff, I won’t say I got to know him. I wouldn’t presume to jump to the middle of a book and claim to have read it. But my impression is that his life experience with the military, a nightclub bouncer, a kick boxer and an expedition paddler has given him a wide experience to draw from that leaves me speechless. He described some harrowing experiences with the military in Northern Ireland that left me wondering if any of us can really know how we will perform when pushed to our limits. Ken Fink is also one that will surprise you in this regard. Ask him about his Polynesia trip sometime. Ken has a long and storied past and continuing experience at sea. I hope we can hear more about his experiences next year at symposium too!

I’ve been attending the WMCKA symposium for almost 7 years now. It seems funny to me how much time has gone by and how quickly. I remember the first symposium I attended was when Nigel Foster was the guest instructor. WMCKA is in it’s twentieth year.

The symposium has a long and warm memory for many people. Some who still come, some aren’t involved in paddling anymore. Ken Fink has been at all but one of the symposiums, and though he might be too modest to admit it, he is also the progenitor of the US sea kayaking symposium tradition.

Personally, the club and the symposium means a lot to me. It is an extended family away from the east side of Michigan where I am from; but in some ways it’s even better, because everyone wants to talk about paddling. I’ve been involved in the planning of symposium for about five years now. It’s been great fun to work with the club and to be able to contribute to a symposium that every one seems to get so much pleasure from.

The WMCKA symposium to quote Derrick Mayoleth has a unique vibe, “somewhere between carnival and peace rally”. Nothing could say it better. Other symposiums I’ve been to are obviously way fun, but lack that feeling of oneness and shared experience. They also lack another thing, children. It’s great to have so many kids out paddling and involved in the event. There are certainly more exciting symposiums for more advanced instruction, and sexier locations, but WMCKA holds it’s own for sheer good mojo. My hope is that whether or not I am a contributor, or participant that the symposium continues on for another twenty years.

The classes I taught this year were terrific, the students were really engaged and eager to learn. I got to do two different rescue classes. It was great to do both assisted and self-rescue classes. We did some great t-rescues with students. I lost my hat on the bottom during one. A student spotted it on the bottom and hovered over it. I exited my boat, took off my lifejacket, dove down 12 feet to scoop it off the bottom on the first try. I then demonstrated a re-enter and roll. This got a couple of students talking, and they decided to try paddle float re-enter and rolls. They both managed to get a re-enter and roll! One got a re-enter and roll on the first try.

Rodeo is often the highlight of this symposium. It is a series of silly races in teams. We start doing races with children on the backdeck and tagging a participant paddler who transfers the child to their kayak to race back to shore. I was lucky to get Deborah (friendly fire) for my rodeo team mate. We had a gas in the rodeo races, Osa Svensson was our child who held on for dear life!

The second rodeo event if possible has outdone the other races. 7 paddlers in a team use one boat paddle around a buoy using a variety of paddling implements. A trash can on shore holds a variety of implements. Each time you come back to shore a new team member grabs an implement from the trash can. You start with a paddle but as the race progresses the less desirable implements are left. So it starts with kayak paddles and towards the end of the race, plungers, and tin foil are left. The team waits on shore to turn the boat around while the paddler gets an implement and hops in the boat.

What this means is that a highly competitive group of paddlers invent all sorts of ways to cheat. And in the words of Ron Smith, “we’re all highly competitive, but the difference is we don’t care who wins”. Aptly put. Doug Van Doren started off the fun by filling Jeff Allen’s Explorer with water before the race even started. Look out for clergy, they are the sneakiest of the bunch!

Our team started well with Jon Holmes using his Eddyline Falcon 18! He rocketed off the starting line and we were essentially unbeatable from that point forward. Jon coming off of his amazing Hugh Heward Ultimate Challenge is in top form. I couldn’t believe how fast he was. The cheating started early with Jeff Allen leading. He was filling the Falcon’s back hatch with water and I caught myself filled with adrenaline thinking that somehow I could tackle a 6’4″ former military commando/kickboxer/knightclub bouncer and drag him down by his pfd. Jeff just laughed at me when I couldn’t even budge him by his PFD straps.

Once we had it in the bag, the cheating started in earnest. Each time a paddler would come in, each team would capsize the opposition and fill their boat with water. It was great fun and high spirits all round.

Jeff’s talk followed. He shared his slideshow on Japan and South Georgia with Hadas Feldman. Jeff and Hadas formed a unique partnership and managed to go around all of Japan together. Jeff shared all of the challenges and amusing trip dynamics with well placed anecdotes with perfect comic timing. If you haven’t seen this is the Sea two, you need to watch it as it covered their expedition.

The talk on South Georgia was captivating. Jeff, Hadas, Nigel Dennis, Jim Rowlinson, and Peter Bray formed the team. Some unique challenges including katabatic winds and an infection from a drysuit gasket made this a really great talk. Jeff had great slides of wildlife including elephant seals, and lots of penguins.

The slide that capped it all, was the closer, “Some men claim to have seen borders, though I have never seen them myself, some claim they exist. Perhaps they exist in some men’s minds.” (more or less).

We delayed the rolling contest until the next morning. I managed to get everything packed in record time and participate. I managed to get 8 in thirteen seconds using my white water paddle despite a false start. Jeff also had a false start and eight rolls. Jeremy did really well, with 8 as well. Hannah Bloyd-Peshkin pulled it out of the bag with 9 rolls in thirteen seconds.

A quick retreat found me wishing Jeff well on his journey. Only yesterday he shared the sad news that his Father died over the weekend in Cypress. Many condolences to Jeff and his family.

Jeff was kind enough to share these words about WMCKA,

“I found the event, the people and the location to be absolutely top notch for the aims of the symposium and it was an absolute privelege to work beside you all.”

Follow Jeff Allen’s endeavors here at Sea Kayaking Cornwall.

Sea Kayak T-Rescue Video Analysis

Marius — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:50:10 +0000

Sea Kayak T-Rescue Demonstration GoKayakNow.com from Keith Wikle on Vimeo.

This is Alec Bloyd Peshkin playing a very compliant and skilled victim for a T-rescue demonstration. The rescuer approaches cautiously at first to make sure the victim isn’t panicked.

Then the rescuer has the victim move to the stern of his kayak while he rights, then empties the victim’s boat. The emptying of the boat is a pull on the deck lines, then a hand inside the cockpit twisting towards himself. Boats are placed bow-stern. The victim never loses contact with either his kayak or the rescuers. Victim holds on to their own paddle until re-entry. Victim deftly places his foot into the cockpit and torques his torso onto his back-deck, and then corkscrews back inside. The rescuer is committed to leaning over the victim’s boat and holding onto the cockpit.

Because of the placid conditions this is very casually performed. In lumpy or textured conditions the time for this rescue could probably be halved. However a total of 1:00 minute in the water for the purposes of a slow demonstration is not too bad. Great view of Soldier Field in the background from the Marina in Chicago.
There is something to be said about losing the big picture when focusing on details. The whole array of saws springs to mind – “not seeing forest for the trees” being the most popular. Here you are probably wondering – what the paddle I am talking about? Simple –rescue ends with the swimmer back in the boat, ready to face wind and waves. How the rescue is performed will depend on the conditions – balmy 80F day with water hitting mid seventies might take a really long time while fishing swimmer from the low forties will happen in a snap. Of course, perfect practice makes for perfect execution when the
need arises, but something is to be said about showing variations that might get someone in trouble.

We need to extend our thanks to Alec Bloyd-Peshkin for braving cold water. I suspect he got a little bit chilled towards the end – that would explain his prompt reentry. And, of course, Keith for doing his best to be his worst.

Before reading debrief, watch the clip a few times and see what could’ve been done differently.

Well, here is what I spotted:

Approach puts victim between his boat and the rescuers’ kayak. That is not desirable since waves can smash both boats against each other. Solution – it is best for the victim to be between the oncoming waves and the boat, since loaded and swamped kayak can weigh a few hundred pounds. It is easier to see oncoming swells as well.
Keith demonstrates tenuous approach very well – see how much care he is taking not to bump against the other boat? Solution – don’t be afraid to bump the other boat – as long as the angle is kept relatively shallow no harm will come. If the victim is at your bow you will be able to see what they are up to, eventually it might be a bit easier for him to maneuver towards the cockpit.
Also notice how inconvenient it is to maneuver the victim’s boat –hull does not provide any convenient purchase point. And that paddle gets in the way. Solution – either place your paddle under deck lines, stick it under your arm, or use paddle leash. If the kayak is flipped the otherkayak’s deck lines will provide multiple grab points.
Keith uses just one hand to move the other kayak, that is hardly stable. Solution – don’t be afraid to lean your weight on the other kayak – it has hundreds of pound of floatation. Two hands will provide twice the purchase points of single hand. Use torso to position the other boat into the T.
Keith lifts the kayak with one hand. Notice how he leans away from the swimmer’s boat. That is neither stable nor safe. Solution – safety is foremost, keep your work in front of you, rotate towards the other boat. This will allow to utilize core muscles to both maneuver the other boat and pull it on your deck – lean towards the victim’s kayak, grab deck lines with both hands, straighten up.
Keith lifts the kayak quite high. Not really a problem, but might not be necessary – why work hard if you don’t have to?
Keith puts one hand inside the cockpit, the other is wrapped around the hull. His right elbow is close to being hyper-extended, might endanger shoulders. Solution – coaming provides for excellent grips, let your fingers grip the inside of cockpit. Don’t forget to keep those elbows close to your body and use body weight to stabilize the other boat.

What went well:

The swimmer and boat never separated
There was no fuss about paddles – swimmer took care of his. Frankly he had nothing else to do, why shouldn’t he hang on to his paddle. And, if by stroke of waves separation occurred he could’ve used the paddle for catching up with his boat
The last, but not the least – he is back in his boat!

Thanks for reading and see if you can spot what I missed

Kayaker Rescued in Puget Sound Debrief

kwikle — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:06:26 +0000

In the past few weeks we’ve been discussing rescues and various techniques for self-rescue. We’ve had some good discussion both here and on the two bigger community message boards Qajaqusa.org and Paddling.net about what will and won’t work for rescuing a sea kayak and why.

During this discussion I put forth the theory that a paddle float self-rescue is not a good solution for rough water. Someone posted a link of Kayaker Scott Redfern’s rescue in Puget sound. I erroneously assumed this was another example of a failed paddle float rescue. After reading the article in the paper, and then Scott’s Redfern’s Blog I will be the first to say I jumped to conclusions. A failed paddle float rescue was only one small fraction of the story.

The larger issue is a three-pronged issue. Training, skills development, and judgment.

Scott Redfern was brave enough to post his own recap of the whole rescue experience on his blog.

In reading through his post Scott Redfern outlined a series of somewhat serious miscalculations.

If you read Scott’s post you will find he made a series of very basic mistakes followed by some that are even more puzzling.

Scott elected to head out onto open water without checking the forecast. This is really the biggie. No holds barred, this was foolish.
Scott brought no signaling device that he mentioned. No strobes, no cell-phone, no VHF, no smoke, no signal mirror. Meaning when the ferry spotted him in the water, it was blind luck, not because he was well prepared and used any foresight whatsoever. In fact we might be discussing his death if the Issaquah hadn’t spotted him.
Scott elected to wear a pair of gore-tex ski-bibs. Bibs in case you haven’t heard are prone to filling with water and dragging people to their doom.
He also elected to wear ski-gloves and a ski jacket. Ski gloves and jacket provide literally nothing in the way of waterproof or insulation when immersed. All they would do is drag you down. For the record I tried it, because I too was cheap and foolish.
He wore an Ironman wetsuit. While this was a great idea considering his other options. These wetsuits are not like surfer’s wetsuits and are no where near as insulating. They also don’t have hoods. Which from the video it appears he didn’t have a hat or neoprene hood that I could pick out.
Scott also neglected either to purchase or wear a spraydeck for his kayak. This is the strangest part of the story that I can pick out because Scott’s description of why, “Taking on water is highly undesirable, but inevitable in these conditions.”. Apparently the idea of a spray deck hadn’t occurred as a necessity. We will get to why in a minute.
Does Scott have any bracing ability? Never mind a roll, a low brace. When he says, “One hit from the side and I’m over and in. I did not want to go there.” It didn’t seem that he possessed that skill.
Lack of self-awareness in contrast to the conditions. When Scott says: “Bear in mind that I have made downwind runs in 3-foot waves in high winds and it was tenuous at best. I’m not a novice and I’m no expert, but this was larger than I’d ever seen.” Normally I would allow a paddler, especially one who has been rescued to exaggerate as much as he/she likes about wave height. There was nothing in the video or the pictures to suggest four foot waves, Keeping in mind that a four foot wave is taller than an upright paddler seated in his kayak. The second part is the whole crux of the issue. Scott describes himself as not a Novice. If Scott is not a novice who in this world is?

Leaving out the five attempts at a paddle-float rescue which is commendable but proved futile. Scott Refern was most likely never trained to do a paddle-float rescue. So as some pointed out in my other post, this really demonstrates nothing about the paddle float rescue. It merely demonstrates that with no training, you are bound to get into trouble. For the record, Scott did some things absolutely correct. He had a wetsuit on. He stayed with his boat. Though some might argue swimming to shore that was maybe between 1000 yards to 500 yards might have actually been ok. I would say in his case sticking with the boat was a great idea. He was not truly on open water after all, he was on Puget sound and he was spotted quickly.

The real issue with any sort of activity is not knowing what you don’t know. This brings me to the whole point of the article. Without an exposure to training, rescues, skills, and even equipment you might not even realize how inexperienced you really are. Scott’s write up is an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning Kruger effect is described thusly:

The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”[1]. They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average.

This effect also known as the Homer Simpson Quotient.

Scott went out onto a tidally effected body of water with inadequate equipment, inadequate training, and inadequate judgement and was ceremoniously whipped on the behind by the sea. His life was saved by a chance sighting of a ferry. His write-up unfortunately doesn’t adequately describe the level to which he erred because of his own lack of experience.

The warmer seasons are upon us. If you are thinking about getting some training this season, start early. Derrick Mayoleth kindly wrote up a summer symposium guide. You certainly won’t be mocked for what you don’t know by anyone at any of these symposiums. But the Great Lakes, or the sea will certainly punish all foolishness with impunity as demonstrated in Scott’s case.

Sea Kayak Rescues Ladder style t-rescue

kwikle — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:33:49 +0000

Sea Kayaking Rescues really have a lot of variation on the theme of getting a victim back in their kayak. The basic premise is that with the aid of a paddling partner, the victim can have an empty sea kayak and scramble back inside.

There have been several new videos of variations on the t-rescue or eskimo rescue.

These innovations are all necessary and all good. Without experimentation and the willingness to try something new, the sport is going to stagnate.

Have a look at this Video of the Bow Roll Rescue:

Next have a look at this: Video Ladder Style Assisted Rescue for Sea Kayak. This WMV video (sorry no youtube embed) is courtesy of Rock and Sea Productions.

These two videos are similar in that they are relying on the rescuer to hold the victim’s bow. Both of these videos have merit. But they also have one big detriment. They can only safely be performed on flat water. The crux of the issue is actually not for the victim, it is for the rescuer. The rescuer still in his boat, must grab the bow of the victim’s boat and either hold it, or rotate it.

Most rescues are not performed on placid lakes with no wind or waves. They are usually performed in lumpy, cold, and windy conditions. Granted adrenaline can take care of quite a bit. If the rescuer is holding the bow in those lumpy conditions, the bow is going to be bumping around near your face for a lot longer than the time it takes to draw and empty a kayak and then bring it around side by side.

You could end up like Doug Van Doren who despite years of training and experience managed to catch a bow in the face merely from trying to draw the kayak across his deck:

Taking the side by side option, which is albeit a little dull, also gives you time to assist with pumping. The rescuer is checking out the victim for signs of hypothermia, shock, head wound, and assisting with getting a spray skirt back on. Side by side rescues also give more limited exposure to the long pointy ends of dangerous kayaks in the surf.

Continuing to innovate and try new things is what will help the sport grow. Testing them in moderate conditions should prove out techniques that work and techniques that don’t. One of the prime directives for safe paddling at sea is that the rescuer should not be putting themselves at further risk, lest you have two people in the water instead of only one.

Sea Kayaking Lake Michigan in the Gales of November

kwikle — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:53:33 +0000

Sea Kayaking Lake Michigan in the Gales of November

My proposed trip of paddling from Port Sheldon to Saugatuck was evaluated and quickly adjusted on Saturday. The forecast was calling for winds up to 30 knots. Waves were expected to be between 6-10 feet, building to 12 feet. I had a rather large invite list that whittled down quickly to about five to six people, and that narrowed down to three in the final days.

John Fleming and I spotted a car in Saugatuck on the way up to Port Sheldon. Once we had everyone assembled I made a judgement call to not do the full 15 miles in the weather we had, but rather to start in Holland and finish in Saugatuck. A measly 7 miles. We parked near Holland State Park on Lake Macatawa and began to suit up. John Fleming and I were the only two with full drysuits. However both Joe Deja and Doug Neal had wetsuits. I encouraged people to wear helmets due to the waves, boats, and break walls.

We discussed the plan for exiting the channel which would be dicey at best. The plan was to shoot straight out of the channel and once in deeper water swing south. My record for expressing the dangers of exiting a constricted rough water area is not good. I tried to share this same concept when I was up in Wawa, and the newer paddlers still managed to run afoul of the hazards in the Michipicoten River mouth.

So when exiting here, I made sure to express that staying close to the break wall was a bad idea, and to stay loose through the rougher parts of the middle of the channel where reflection waves were bouncing around. Once through the soup you would be in deep water where nothing would be breaking and you could begin paddling south. Unfortunately Doug Neal ran afoul of the break wall and had a close call I didn’t even witness. Apparently he got caught by an incoming wave and almost ran into the rocks just inside the break wall. He managed to make it out, but was visibly shaken for the rest of the trip. When he emerged he erroneously spotted some surfers on the south part of the breakwall waiting for a wave and thought it was us. He started heading for the surfers. He never saw it, but a huge face that had me wishing for my surf boat came up behind him and lifted his tail about 8 feet, washed underneath his kayak and then peeled nicely as it ran over the southern sand bar. I remember thinking in my head, “wow is he going for that 8 foot wave?” Turns out he wasn’t. John and Joe made it out with no such frights.

I looked upwind and took stock of the situation, because if we were going to bag it, this was the time to do it. It looked gnarly upwind. Ok gnarly is an understatement. It looked steep, intimidating and mean upwind. A completely gunmetal gray sky with dark shoulder ridged clouds pushed down from the north like a mounted cavalry charge. Downwind looked manageable, and ironically the sun broke through in the south illuminating the surface like a runway in the dark for a plane. We decided to make a break for it.

Immediately my Foster Silhouette was racing downwind. I was probably making 8-9 knots without even trying. I was easily catching 400-500 yard rides with few paddle strokes. My blades would spin for four or five strokes and then my tail would lift from a giant swell and take off, spilling water off the bow and then I would edge on or off to keep pointed due south, and then low bracing on the other side. I was having a gas. The only trick was to keep pointing your kayak a bit west to ensure you didn’t wind up on the inside of the break zone. At this pace we would easily make Saugatuck in about 50 minutes.

Unfortunately one of our crew never quite recovered from his brush with the break wall. I think it really got in his head, and then when he was on the outside, he made the big mistake of second guessing everything. The water was cold, the buoy reported mid-high forties. The wind was howling at 25-30 knots, and the waves when you bothered to look over your shoulder were pretty impressive. And he knew at the end of the wild downwind ride there was another river mouth with two break walls to face.
I stuck back with Doug, while Jon Fleming and Joe Deja raced ahead with the wind.

Doug I noticed would stop paddling whenever a swell rushed underneath him, which on the Great Lakes is about every 3-5 seconds. So he was not paddling a whole lot. Having seen Doug paddle and teach before I knew it was purely a mental issue and not an ability issue. Having said this, I would invite Doug to comment on any aspect of this story that rings untrue or sounds exaggerated.

I was trying to keep asking him how he was doing. I asked if he was warm, or if he was sea sick. I kept paddling ahead a bit, hoping he would dig in and catch up. When that didn’t happen, I waited for him to catch me. We rested a minute, and then let him go ahead. As we paddled I tried to give some advice that probably rang out (at the time) as either useless or annoying about keeping an active blade in the water. We were making good time. But those oncoming clouds and the prediction of a building sea state were dead on, the wind was picking up, and the waves were getting bigger.

We were nearing the Kalamazoo River mouth at Saugatuck, and the tops of the waves began to crumble from the increased velocity of the wind. I couldn’t see Joe or Jon. We were hopelessly separated, but I was praying they made the entrance to the channel unscathed. As we approached I asked Doug how he felt about the channel. He said straight out he would prefer not to do it. I told Doug about the beach to the south where I could swing around and pick him up. But then recanted when I realized I would have to go all the way in with him and then back around and in the channel. This would add another 45 minutes of dangerous hard paddling for me and he might be alone on that beach and cold for a long time while I looked for Joe and Jon. I told him we were going to have to do the channel. He gritted his teeth and paddled on. I could tell he wasn’t happy with me.

As we approached the channel the waves steepened and began to break as they ran over a sand bar at the edge of the river. It was quite big, at least 7-8 feet. To add insult to injury it began to hail. Doug slowed as his anxiety built. I told him we had to go for it and not slow down in the channel. Doug wasn’t really focusing very well and when big waves came up behind him his paddle wasn’t even in the water. I was shouting to him, (thought it probably seemed like I was shouting at him at the time), to backpedal. He managed to back off of one quite steep face. I let him go ahead and one big wave immediately rushed up, I backpedaled and shouted for Doug to do the same. He either couldn’t hear me or was so deep in facing his fear of those breakwalls he just didn’t react. An impressive six footer took him and rushed him towards the mouth of the channel and then broke.

He went over. In my head, I thought, ah sh#t this is it. I’m going to have to tow him and his boat into deeper water to put him back in his boat. This is gonna hurt. And by the grace of god, Doug rolled up like a pro. I was never so happy to see someone roll as when I saw him come up. At this point I had enough adrenaline to crush a bus and I was beginning to fear for myself as well as Doug. I paddled up and said we had to go for it while there was a lull. Doug said he wanted to rest a minute. I shouted back, “This is not a place to f#cking rest, we gotta go for it!” I am really sorry for being short with him, but I was getting pretty terrified of having to tow him as a swimmer in the channel.

At that moment, God in his mercy smiled on me and the waves calmed enough where I could see the beach. Joe and Jon were on it and out of their boats. They were waving to us. The plan came together quickly I was sending Doug in to the beach and I would head down the channel to get the car. I told Doug to go for it. I watched him make it past the break wall as I braced against the incoming waves to my port side. Once he was clear of the break wall. I went for it. I backpedaled through the rushing waves and hail to get my bow pointed into the channel. Once I felt I had enough space I put everything I had into swinging my tail around and heading down the river mouth. One huge wave came up and washed me side ways directly towards the south edge of the break wall. I managed to swing my tail back in line with the river mouth with a stern draw and head towards the more protected north wall, and then sweep back in on another wave straight down the channel. I had made it, but only by the skin of my teeth.

I paddled like hell thinking I was going to have to get to the car and drive around to Oval beach in a hurry. But then I remembered there was a cut back in the river right by the south break wall where I could get out and check up on everyone. I was worried I was going to have to get back in a boat and possibly tow Doug in as a swimmer. But luckily after I humped it over the dunes all three guys were on the beach. I ran over and immediately hugged Doug out of some bizarre sense of regret and relief. I was so happy he made it. When I looked out at the sea state, it had turned into a gyrating washing machine of frothed up white water. The swells were no longer well formed and even, it had devolved into a real Gale of November. I was really happy all of us were on shore.

We took some pictures and began to portage the boats into the river. We managed to carry the boats in fairly short order and paddled the rest of the way up the river.

Over dinner we all agreed there was very little to exaggerate about the day’s events.

While we all made a decision to go for it, we had not counted on the extreme conditions on the entrance to the pier prohibiting us from entering it. Nor had I predicted that we would become so spread out so quickly. John and Joe, who really did very well, were having difficulty hanging back with Doug and I. If I had been a better leader I would have insisted on it, so that we could have made a group decision about the channel or the beach. Or at the very least we could have discussed it before they took off. We had no communication method to coordinate this essential detail. I was really worried about having to go back out and look for Joe and Jon. So I wanted to make sure Doug was safe inside the river mouth, rather than potentially struggling through the steep dumping surf on the south side of the Saugatuck beach. From past experience I knew this beach was not a good place to bring a kayak in steep waves. If I had remembered the path along the pier, the trip back to the car would have seemed far less important.

As usual I was second guessing my decisions and my leadership. John Fleming asked me a terrific question on the way home. Were we skilled or, lucky? I answered that without hesitating…lucky.

Again if Joe, John, or Doug would like to embellish please feel free to add it in the comments.

3 Star

kwikle — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:59:00 +0000

Compulsory, like latin or greek to a traditional classic education, I went back to get my 3 star. I speak as if I did it with the thought I dropped something on the pavement and went back for it. Not sure.
I feel ready to take my next step towards my Coach 2. I It just seemed funny last night when I went through the hoops, because I already had my 4 star, and I had also taken my canoe safety test. Was it necessary? Maybe not, is a reverse figure of 8 really ever strictly necessary? No, but having done it, I can say I’ve passed the exam, no one can take it away from me, much like crossing the line (the equator in sailor speak). It is a rite of passage, and for me it is part of the experience.

Ron Smith made an excellent suggestion that I travel outside the midwest for my coach 2, to get some new perspectives on the whole thing, maybe hear some things from people out on the east, west, or some unknown foreign coast.

I agree. New perspectives are needed.