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Come to Jesus Moments

Most of us have had at least one “Come to Jesus” sea kayaking experience. That watershed moment where your paddling life is “re-born”. Perhaps you were at death’s door either figuratively (sucking in aerated water while your boat is mercilessly “windowshaded” in a big wave) or literally (on a swim in the rough waters of Portes de Morts Passage on Lake Michigan), or both. Or more simply, you paddled outside of your club, or circle of kayaking mates and found out it was a big sea and you were a smaller fish than you realized.

These moments are crucial in every paddler’s progression. The awareness that you don’t know anything close to what you should know.

My “Come to Jesus” experience was as an instructor attending an update. There were no harrowing tales of high seas or epic rescues, but simply a trainer who was a better paddler and more knowledgeable than I’d known before. I had become gotten my paper three years prior to this update, admittedly undeserving of the level of the award earned. I had athleticism, leadership experience from other outdoor activities, ability to perform skills recently learned, common sense and rough water survival skills from a whitewater background (all good things to have). This allowed me to get a pass. Armed with a Level 4 certification, I had the false impression that I was truly at that level. Uninspired to learn further, I took my certification and put it to good use, leading trips on Lake Superior, in the Florida Everglades and even Alaska. I picked up new skills (self-taught) along the way, taught and lead quality trips/courses without incident. However, exposure to new thoughts and new ways of teaching created the awareness that my knowledge and level of skill as a paddler and teacher was not satisfactory (to me). This one experience has spurred what many paddlers could consider a lifetime of learning and betterment over the course of the past 6 years.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen paddlers come to this crossroad and go down the path of least resistance…satisfied to stay the same or even letting their seemed “failures” drive them away from the sport. Although regrettable, I don’t see this as the current trend in our sport. I see other paddlers who have achieved certification searching out opportunities to better themselves. This past year’s Gales Storm Gathering was the highest level of participant skill that I’ve ever witnessed at an event. Coaches from the west coast remarked that the Great Lakes were on par with level of coaching and skill as they witness back on their home turf.

Have you had a “Come to Jesus” moment? If, so… ”what was your watershed experience?” and “what have you done since that time?”

Ryan Rushton
Geneva Kayak

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In the past few weeks, there have been a number of incidents on the Great Lakes, and on the west coast. Some were fatal, some merely ended in rescues. Sea kayaking as a sport, at least among non-kayakers has a bit of a reputation for being careless. Among water sports, we are more vulnerable to the elements, probably even more than sailors. Yet sea kayakers venture out into an environment that they don’t necessarily have a ton of experience with. Wind, waves, swell, tidal current, air temps, water temps, rough coastal features, river mouths all work to provide a challenging environment for paddlers who venture out.

Going back to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, I remember thinking about the mentoring system of The British Navy in the age of sail. The Navy took boys as young as 10 to sea. Exposing them to horrific risks, bad food, and brutal discipline. Boys spent years as midshipmen. They were tutored into the nautical profession to become officers. This is because it took at least 10 years to learn their trade, understand their environment, their vessel, and the dynamics of warfare at sea.

Sea Kayaking could learn something from this approach. It is a a sport with many great paddlers, but few great leaders. We simply don’t put enough emphasis on seamanship and understanding the environment into which we blindly venture. How many ACA coaches, or even BCU coaches do you know who have spent 10+ years in direct study of the sea, and further how to lead groups out into that deep blue horizon? I can only think of a handful. I am not one of them for the record.

But, we were talking about the Greater Duty of Care, and risk assessment. Often, we focus on the fun part at kayaking symposiums, incident management. Rescues, towing, and other hard skills. It’s critical to have these skills, they are what make the difference between life and death, but only when the first part, the risk assessment, has failed. In most cases, the incident at Lumpy Waters included, did not fail to manage the incident, they failed to do a risk assessment. Why? I wasn’t there. I would presume like anything it was a number of factors, not one smoking bullet. But could it be that we have failed, collectively, not as individuals, to create a culture of mentorship, tutelage for leadership and the greater duty of care in sea kayaking.

Paddlers are lauded and laureled for their ability to pick up the pieces, but rarely for having the balls/ovaries to say, I won’t take a group out in these conditions today. If you say that, it is as if you are saying, “I don’t have the hard skills to cope with the environment.” When in fact, what we should be hearing is, “If I am responsible for the lives and well being of those around me, I will not go. I care more about the group than my street cred.” This is what should change culturally. Kayaking, like any sport has cultural momentum behind it. When we get together there is always a strategic increase in macho bullshit activity, or what I have now coined as SIMBA. Don’t fall victim to it!

This is only part of the problem though, we have also been caught up in what climbers call, “summit fever”. This is the phenomenon where paying clients get hung up below the summit, and their guides short rope them to the top so they can say that they tagged the summit. Then on the way down, when the clients can’t cope anymore, or collapse, they are in the death zone, and no one can help them. This shouldn’t happen. Guides should be able to judge the ability of their clients and only take qualified climbers to the top. As our kayak training events get more ambitious, we should be wary of “summit fever” and short roping paying clients to the top.

We forget our more callow youths too quickly, and when we lead people we don’t know on the water, they may appear skilled, but prove to be oblivious to certain dangers. Often the people you are leading, don’t have the experience to understand their environment as well as you do, they are not afraid of the things you are afraid of, and are not cognescent of dangers. This problem allows participants in our classes to expose themselves to dangers repeatedly without even understanding where things may have gone wrong in the past. Don’t fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger syndrome, this concept frightens the hell out of me. Students are often drawing the wrong conclusions about failed attempts in rough water. I literally listened to one student tell me the reason he swam in surf repeatedly was a deck bag.

So with these thoughts in mind, how can we expect coaches to make proper risk assessments?

My biggest beef with kayaking is the complacency in seeking training. If 10+ years is what it took to lead a watch as a lieutenant, is 10 years too long for sea kayaking? Develop a mentorship with a coach who demonstrates the highest level of both hard and soft skills. Never assume there is nothing left to learn. Seek out training and observe different schools of thought. If you are charged with the lives of others around you, and you enjoy coaching, don’t you owe to yourself and those you are charged with to pursue meaningful tutelage?

When leading groups out onto the water, here are a few things to maybe keep everyone grounded.

• Have a plan. Communicate the plan, stick to the plan, but be flexible on changing your plan. This includes having a float plan, and a way to communicate.
• Always designate a leader. As nerdy and hierarchical as it seems, it will clarify everything on the water if/when everything falls apart.
• Always do a risk assessment on shore. Follow the Body Boat Blade risk plotter, if anything plots in the red, come up with a plan b for sheltered water, or land based activities.
• Use local knowledge, know the tides, current, outs, and weather. But know all of it down to the hour.
• Don’t leave shore with a group without a chart. Knowing where y0u are and where the nearest help is could make all the difference.
• People are always your greatest asset, and your greatest liability. Try to know who your leading with, even if you’re not the trip/class leader.
• Do a warm-up to assess your group including instructors prior to heading out. The simple make a star formation will show you who has boat and edge control in a hurry. Or use another simple game.
• If the stakes increase, continue to assess the situation, and ensure you have an out.
• Double check students equipment and ensure it is serviceable and appropriate to the conditions.
• Use CLAP. Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance Positioning.
• Managing large groups makes everything harder, breaking them down into smaller groups with assistants you trust. It makes everything easier.

With all of this said, I try to never forget that kayaking is supposed to be fun. The reason we all do this is that we are pursuing that one perfect moment. That moment rarely comes without risk.

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In reading the latest issue of Ocean Paddler, I read the article/interview by expeditioner/philosopher- Jon Turk. I really like Jon Turk. To date he has been one of my favorite guest speakers at WMCKA. His Logic vs. Magic video from the Raven’s Gift book really struck a chord with me. It is an interesting paradigm, and one that appeals to my more poetic impulses. As someone who is primarily engaged in technology, data, and logic, I wholeheartedly believe in Jon’s assessment of modern existence. We have choices every day between logic, and dreams. And dreams, fantasy, and magic in nature are more prevalent than we choose to believe because of our focus on pragmatism. For me it is a balance between the two.

Jon’s interviewed covered a lot of ground from his expedition experience. He has more miles under his kayak seat than I ever will. He has also pursued those miles in regions of the earth most people would never dare to pursue, Northwest Passage, Kamchatcka, Japan, Patagonia and more. Jon is also a very talented and athletic telemark skier, and backcountry alpine skier who spends a lot of his time choosing new routes on pristine slopes in the American Rockies. He has also done some bike touring in Mongolia.

John’s new expedition to Ellesmere Island is already underway.

The reason why this is interesting is in issue 26 of Ocean Paddler magazine, the interview asked Jon why two thirds of his expedition team had little to no sea kayak expedition experience. His response was, “I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but sea kayaking isn’t technically that difficult.”

Based on Jon’s experience with expeditions, climbing, skiing, etc, I can perhaps see where Jon is coming from. Do I completely agree, not sure. Certainly sailing is way more technical and requires years and years of training and practice, rock climbing and alpine climbing are definitely very technical. But is sea kayaking just not that technically difficult?

Certainly surfing has been a big challenge from a skill basis, I could probably spend the rest of my life doing it and not be happy with my performance. Sea Kayaking I feel has a skill and an endurance facet to it that I find really engaging and based on this I have never grown bored of it.

What does the peanut gallery think?

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Sea kayaking consumer trends as viewed through insights for search

I took a look at a few tools to see where some of the big Brands in Sea Kayaking stood in comparison with each other. Some of the results were surprising, others were not so surprising. Looking at data like this can sometimes be misleading, and each person can draw their own conclusion as to what this means. I am interested in consumer searches for these brands as it relates to new product launches, brand power, consumer perception, and online web presence. I am as you know not endorsed by any of these brands, nor am I swayed one way or the other. The reason I picked these brands is that they are known primarily for sea kayaks. They don’t make recreational boats, they don’t make light touring kayaks, so the data is cleaner. I have nothing against rec kayaks, or light touring kayaks, it is primarily for the purposes of examining sea kayaking as a sport.

Let me preface this post with the fact that I am a huge nerd. My job and my hobby really shouldn’t intersect, there should be an interstitial space between the two, a void that drops off where I leave search and metrics behind, and kayaking fun can begin without even thinking about this stuff. But alas, it is interesting to look at charts and graphs and to think about what it all means.

I examined the following brands:
Valley Sea Kayaks

P&H Sea Kayaks

Sea Kayaking UK (formerly Nigel Dennis Kayaks)

Tiderace Kayaks

So here is a graph from from Google Insights for Search that shows some sort of hedge case water sports. It is something to ground us all who are passionate about this sport. This tool basically gives you search volume over time with news results and other events along the timeline.

So the thing to note is that kayaking, windsurfing, and it appears even kiteboarding are following the same trendline. The amount of searches each year is definitely smaller and smaller each year. Keep in mind this is Google’s tool and that they hold roughly 70% of the search share. The peak each year for all these search terms is in July, and it is straight down after this. What this tells me is that it is a shrinking consumer base for splinter water sports. It could be for one of three reasons. One, the number of people who are interested in kayaking is shrinking. Two, the number of people who have tried kayaking once and gotten it out of their system is growing. And three, Google searches overall are shrinking each year with the introduction of other means of finding content on the internet. Keep in mind it could be a combination of all three. The thing that I chuckle about is that parkour is bigger than kayaking in terms of searches. This is not participation mind you, but searches. Throwing myself at concrete in acrobatic leaps is not my idea of a good time, but friend Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin can beg to differ. The other humor point is, when was the last time you remember windsurfing being top of mind for anyone? 1980 something right? Miami Vice era. Remember the girl with the bikini and the head dink? The Miami Vice opening Video sequence below at time signature :14.

We are part of a shrinking herd, a diminishing tribe so to speak, and it is good to remember the lessons of Miami Vice.

Sea kayaking brands over time.
Let’s look at Google Insights for Search.

So a couple of interesting points. Valley Sea Kayaks has a long history with sea kayaking in general. Their interest in search has been consistent, but dwindling like everyone else’s. Where do their peaks come from? They are roughly correlated to the trend in watersports in general. The super interesting thing is that Aled Williams company Tiderace has risen onto the scene and has gotten almost as much search volume as its competitors relatively quickly. Whereas Sea Kayaking UK, or NDK had a high number of searches and has since declined rapidly, either due to their name shift from NDK, to Sea Kayaking UK, or diminishing interest from consumers.

The startling thing to me is that there aren’t any huge spikes around new product innovation, or new design. That in and of itself says alot about the impact of new product launches.

There are brief spikes that quickly die off in consumer searches. The brands have done a much better job as of late in getting information to consumers to generate buzz. P&H and Valley both have used message boards and blog posts to pump up interest in new designs. P&H did a masterful job in getting everyone’s attention to the Delphin. And Peter Orton of Valley Sea Kayaks was discussing their new design concept for Valley and is using high profile paddlers like the always fun, Justine Curgenven to test the design.

Unfortunately this has not paid off in any lasting effect with consumers in search in the way that it does with say consumer electronics, or smart phones. Not a fair comparison. But in terms of how say the Apple iPhone4 launch caught the consumers perception, and has maintained interest post launch. Well, sort of unbeatable isn’t it? Could the paddlesports industry do a better job of doing prelaunch materials like videos, testimonials and endoresements for new products without getting all slimy? Probably. But is that the whole story, no? The outdoor retailer trade show, has to dates, one in January and one in August. Why are there no huge blips then? Industry insiders are aware of it, but few others. Whereas the consumer electronic show, comic con, and other expo shows.

Take a lesson from the comic book nerds here.

Marvel Studios announced the director for the Avengers movie, Joss Whedon at Comic Con, and it was plastered all over the internet and twitter. Could these Outdoor Retailer shows be a better vehicle for paddle sports? Maybe. Or maybe I overestimate the power of these shows to promote new products. I am one of the nerds from Comic Con for the record.

Lastly is a Compete Graph, showing traffic to these major brands. Unfortunately Tiderace did not have enough volume to show on this graph so I threw Go Kayak Now! into the mix. We’re not doing to bad are we?…

I think each of these brands has a lot to offer to consumers looking to get their first kayak, or their second or third, this is not a criticism of the product at all, but rather a bit of insight into the trend in consumer behavior with the brand as it pertains to search. Let me know if you have insights from the paddleshop side of things, or the manufacturer side that I don’t and I would love to see it. Keep in mind this is all from the US side of things for what is mostly a UK operation. I didn’t intend to pick all UK manufacturers but they had the most data to play with and made all sea kayaks.

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Go Kayak Now will be hosting a Risk Management Course in St. Joseph Michigan this weekend July 31st to August 1.

July 31st On Land Risk Management Course

The on land portion of the class to create a background for the on-water section will be four hours at the St. Joseph Library starting at 10:00 am.

Cost is $25.00.

Please bring a snack lunch and some notebook materials.

The outline for the course is as follows:

• Intro
• Who the heck are you?
• Risks in sea kayaking
• Paddlers
• Weather
• Hypothermia
• Wind and Waves
• Terrain
• Navigation
• Time of Day
• Risk Plotting
• Exercise in Risk Plotting(break for lunch)
• Dressing For Paddling
• Safety Equipment for paddling group exercise
• Towing
• Group Management and Leadership Intro
• CLAP (communication line of sight avoidance and positioning)
• CLAP Exercise

Google Map to the St. Joseph Public library where the onland session will be held.

View Larger Map

Second Day August 1st. 9:00 AM Lion’s Beach St. Joseph Michigan.

Four hour on the water incident management course. This class is by appointment only, so please email or call me if you plan on attending we need to have very specific instructor to student ratios in order to make this class work. This class will start at Lion’s Beach St. Joseph Michigan.

Cost is $40.00

Required equipment:

Sea kayak with bulkheads, lifejacket, spray deck, tow belt, contact tow, paddle, sack lunch, dry clothes.

Optional equipment, helmet, spare paddle, and VHF radio.

Map to Lion’s Beach.

View Larger Map

Please contact me with any questions.

me at go kayak now dot com!

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This presentation is being given at WMCKA, and a few other locations this summer.
I thought this might be interesting for those that have e-mailed me and asked about surfing sea kayaks, or white water kayaks on the Great Lakes. If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know I am interested in your feedback.

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In the second of my two presentations, the first being on Tides, is my presentation on piloting. The IDW/ICE was a great experience and I learned a lot through the process. I am not entirely displeased with this presentation, nor am I overtly thrilled about it. But having had the experience was a good one despite how I might feel about the result. I think other candidates should take note that the more interactive and fun your presentation is, the better you will do.

The object is to present basic information on piloting to a group of beginners in 10 minutes or less. So you have to cover a lot of information in 10 minutes, but not get to far into the weeds.

I use power point every day at work, so this seemed a good way of measuring my time, one slide per minute. Ask questions and get the group involved.

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Ice Cliffs on Lake Michigan near South Haven January 2010, originally uploaded by Go Kayak Now.

I had an excellent paddle along the cliffs on Saturday afternoon. I tried to explore all the areas where the cliffs were highest and were the brash ice was loose. Paddling amongst the flows and pancake ice is a serene experience. It is otherworldly, and sometimes violent as ice cracks, breaks off and falls into Lake Michigan. Other times it is more subtle where you hear a grating, or sliding noise as a giant piece of ice tumbles over. The loose crumbly bits of ice that float loose next to larger icebergs rub against one another. This makes a sound like a cocktail shaker with a martini in it. Am I the olive?

Temperatures were in the high thirties, rain sprinkled and spat a few times, but then the sun broke out among the clouds.

My gore-tex drysuit is in for repairs with Kokatat, so I wore my Brooks tuiliq and IR neoprene pants, I was plenty warm except my feet. I had a warmer pair, but I lost one in my ICE in the surf. I have a lonely single fleece lined bootie in the garage to remind me of the nasty swim I took on the rocks.

The full gallery of sea kayaking in the ice pictures can be found here: