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Safety - Thought Process and Checklists
Decision Making and Judgement Pitfalls
Most of the information on this page is meant to suggest practices that can help you avoid making careless mistakes or being inadequately prepared for outings. They may not help you avoid some of the most risky decisions that we are all capable of making due to our natural biases and weaknesses in decision making. The following are good articles about safety related decisions and some common pitfalls to watch for.
- The Risk of Sea Kayaking a trip to Sugar Reef when the tidal race was running strong
- Surfski.info Deciding When It's Too Big 12/2017 Rob Mousley ruminating on these kinds of decisions in relation to several Millers Run trips.
Checklists
These lists and rating systems are intended to get you thinking about the full range of considerations that affect your safety. They are offered here with the hope that they will encourage you to learn about considerations you do not fully understand, treat such yet to be understood considerations with respect and a healthy dose of conservativism, and ultimately for you to develop your own personal gauge for safety concerns so you can better judge when your skills and preparation are up to the conditions of any potential paddle outing.
Nicholas Cryder's Equipment Checklist & Safety Practices/Considerations
Eric Soares (Tsunami Rangers) Sea Rating System (some of this is really sea kayak specific, but much is also valid for surfski)
Cold Water Centric Checklists
Most Common Problems To Avoid and/or Be Able to Handle
The chart below (click to enlarge) comes from the 2016 ICF Ocean Racing Coaching Manual. It is the results from a survey of surfski experts on the most common causes of surfski emergencies. It seems that common sense should dictate that you direct your preparation toward avoiding the common causes and also toward being able to deal with situations that you cannot avoid - to the best of your ability to prepare for them. The respondents to the survey come from all over the world. If you live and paddle in a cold water location, you might rate the frequency of problems from cold water shock and fatigue and inability to remount as very common and therefore should place even greater emphasis on equipment (wetsuits, more stable surfskis, etc.), skills (stability, remount, group paddling, communication), and judgement (when is it too cold? too rough and cold?) that help you avoid and/or deal with the risk of cold water.
| Least Common | Common to Very Common | Most Common | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capsize, no leash, lost ski | 9.09% (4) | 77.27% (34) | 13.64% (6) |
| Capsize, broken leash, lost ski | 15.91% (7) | 77.27% (34) | 6.82% (3) |
| Capsize, unable to remount | 6.98% (3) | 65.12% (28) | 27.91% (12) |
| Broken rudder | 39.53% (17) | 60.47% (26) | 0% (0) |
| Broken steering | 38.64% (17) | 56.82% (25) | 4.55% (2) |
| Broken paddle | 52.27% (23) | 47.73% (21) | 0% (0) |
| Capsize, cold water shock, unable to remount | 25.58% (11) | 48.84% (21) | 25.58% (11) |
| Taking on water, sinking | 60.47% (26) | 39.53% (17) | 0% (0) |
| Health issue (heart attack, dislocation, etc.) | 60.47% (26) | 32.56% (14) | 6.98% (3) |
| Boat/ship accident | 84.09% (37) | 15.91% (7) | 0% (0) |
| Shark attack | 97.67% (42) | 2.33% (1) | 0% (0) |
| “Most of us sort out our probabilities not with statistics but according to what we have actually experienced. Psychologists call this the application of “heuristics”. Heuristics are the generalizations we accept about the working of the world, drawn from the grab bag of what we've seen personally or what we've heard from trusted sources like friends and relatives.” Source: James R. Chiles, Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the edge of technology, HarperCollins 2001 |
Photo: Lawrence Risley video (this one could have hurt - slow down your playback speed to get a better look)
Further Thoughts on Safety
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