Surfski Knowledge Base

Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
06/01/10 #8556

Kudos to the water kayak polo players tonight at Marine Park, who rescued a paddler floating in on the flood tide. The paddler had become separated from his kayak, and apparently had been in the water quite a while. They saw him waving his yellow paddle float and heard him yelling for help somewhere a ways off the shipyard, and pulled him in to shore to a waiting ambulance. I thought to go look for the kayak, but was tired and it was late, and thought to call the Coast Guard; someone had found his boat and gear, they had it, and his wife was with him. Made me wonder if he had one of those dandy new orange identification stickers on his boat. Nice job polo players!

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
glenn biernacki
06/01/10 #8557

Don't know if it's worth mentioning, but he said he had been in the water for 2.5 hours, he was really in quite good mental and physical shape for even being in the water for 20 minutes. We had some beer sunk to cool for after our polo game libation … it was pretty warm when we retreived it, that probably helped alot …..

–glenn

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
lori & beau whitehead
06/02/10 #8561

Hey Glenn, what was the kayaker wearing? Was he just unable to re-mount his boat? The bay was relatively calm yesterday. I like to learn from these things, so was just wondering.
Thanks.

Beau Whitehead

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
glenn biernacki
06/02/10 #8563

He was wearing wool socks, no gloves, poly pro long johns, no hat, poly pro top with long sleeves and maybe a shortsleeve shirt over that. He had his pfd, spray skirt, and one of those sea kayaker paddle float bags which he eventually waved effectively to get attention from the beach. I don't think he would have been noticed without that.

We pulled him from an area, probably two thirds to that barge out there, to Marine Park. Far enough out, that I think 4 different kayaks took turns pulling him in.

Not quite clear, but it sounded like he had hung onto the Post Point Bouy for some time, and then eventually decided he had better try to swim in. He still had the strength to hang onto the back of our creek boats unassisted with a calm, steady, demeanor.

Coast Guard came out after we had got him to shore, where the paramedics were waiting. Sent the coast guard on their way with a description of his kayak …… and glad thay were able to find it.

He was mostly embarrased. Said he was hoping to swim in to Marine Park and get in his car without anyone noticing. It wasn't communicated the actual flipping over and seperation from his kayak. The bay was calm and the sun was blocked so you could see better towards the West-NorthWest, this helped his cause.

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
Dale McKinnon
06/02/10 #8565

Early Monday morning (4 a.m.) I was out in the Bay with my English Channel swimmer (he swam from Marine Park to Inati Bay, and then to Eliza Island) as pilot, and I took five temp readings (1.5' deep) as we proceeded across: 53 degreesF 50 yards west of Marine Park, with subsequent readings ranging between 51 and 54 degrees. Temps must be provided in an affidavit proving ability to make the distance when sent to the governing body that oversees Channel swims. The water cannot be over 63 degrees. No worries about that in Bham Bay.

So, I have to call into question the kayaker's claim that he was “in” the water for 2.5 hours. My Channel swimmer is conditioned and trained to swim (without a wetsuit) in cold water. He's a big, beefy guy, and doesn't bob around with the major muscle group (quads) descending into the colder water (rapid heat loss), treading water, like a person awaiting rescue. He has cut a couple BhamBay swims short and climbed in the boat when he couldn't make his hands work properly, knowing that he was getting too hypothermic. Could the kayaker, although seemingly “quite good…,” have misunderstood the question of “in the water” for “on” the water? It would make sense that he went out to paddle on the water a couple hours prior to getting in the water.

What I'm saying is, I don't believe it. And if true, I need to talk to him. Who can I contact that has the rescued kayaker's contact info?

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
dnjacobson79
06/02/10 #8567

Ya, I think I might of put in with this guy at Marine Park around 3:30 -4ish, he drove a Toyota truck maybe? I remember thinking how warm the water was as well, but the wind picked up and by the time I turned at Whiskey Rocks I was able to test drive my new boat (the new V-14!) surfing all the way back. The bay was mirror flat when I put in, so it goes to show how much it can change in 45 minutes…… good save by the polo folks!

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
glenn biernacki
06/02/10 #8568

I agree, 2.5 hrs seems unbelievable, and it is very possible we misunderstood him. Perhaps he was “on” the water for 2.5 hours. The rescue happened at around 6:20 pm. None of us took or asked for personal info besides a first name. The paramedics took over after we got him to Marine park and blanketed him up. He had been “in” the water awhile though, since he was way out towards that barge, a long ways from anything including the Post Point Bouy, far enough that you couldn't tell what it was out there, except for something yellow being waved around. And there was nothing near him, no kayak, paddle, nothing.

Not sure how to get hold of him (though he said he'ld get hold of us), and the whole story came in bits, and didn't make complete sense at the time, but didn't really seem to matter. We just wanted to get him to shore.

Re: Sea Kayaker Rescue
Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
06/02/10 #8569

I caught some unusually strong late afternoon tide rips out there both Tuesday and Wednesday. They were fun to play in, but this guy was in a plywood Pygmy kayak, and he might not have had sufficient knowledge or skill to see these as being different from wind waves.

tuesday's rescue
wigcl
06/03/10 #8579

Thank you so much to Glenn and all of the kayakers that came to my rescue. Here is the story… please note-I am much more embarrassed at some of the poor decision making that led to the incident than I am about actually falling out of my boat. I am posting this so that the story can be examined and we can all learn from my mistakes. I know that there are people out there that will be extremely critical of some of my decision making on Tuesday, and I know that I deserve that.

I had tried to round the bouy on Monday and turned back after getting about 2/3 of the way out there due to conditions that were beyond my comfort level. I launched Tuesday around 3:30 +/- a few minutes and headed out. The water seemed calm enough and the winds were low. I am not the fastest paddler, but it didn't take me too long to get out to the bouy. Rounding the bouy, I suddenly found myself leaning hard to the right. I don't know what caused this. I balanced on edge for a bit trying to get right, but couln't seem to. Thinking back, I know I froze mentally and physically, a casual brace to that side would have righted me. Eventually, I lost the balance I was fighting for and the boat rolled. I immediately got my paddle float off of the stern and started to work to get it on the paddle. As I struggled with that, I held on to the boat….at some point, I let go of the boat to work with the float and the paddle. I must have focused too long on the task at hand. The boat drifted away from me FAST. I do not know how my paddle leash stayed attatched to the boat, but not to the paddle. In what seemed like just a few seconds, the boat was twenty feet away. I floated for awhile not too far from the bouy. I waved my paddle around in the air for a time. Holding on to the paddle and the float made it impossible to swim. Eventually I put the float between my legs and waved the paddle around hoping to be seen. After a bit, I separated the paddle to try and use the halves as an aide to swimming. This got me nowhere. I let go of the paddle halves and swam to the bouy. I was barely able to hold on to the bouy and could not get on it. I decided to stay there until I was rescued. After waving my float at passing planes and boats….I realized I was not going to be seen. I was hoping to hold on until my empty boat was found or my gal called in that I was overdue. After hanging on to the bouy for a good long while, I realized that this was going to get me killed. I didn't know if I could swim in, but figured it was better to drown or freeze trying to swim in than to die holding onto that bouy. So I pushed off and started swimming in. I kept the bouy in sight as a reference. Trying to keep my spirits up, I only looked towards the shore a couple of times. I preferred to see how far I was from the bouy rather than how far I was from shore. The second time I looked around, I realized that I had made good progress but was going to miss my landing point and was drifting towards the shipyards. At that point, I saw the kayak polo players and weakly waved the float around trying to get some attention. I saw people scrambling around on the beach and thought that maybe I had been seen. Turning again I saw Glenn and a number of others paddling HARD out to me. Thanks so much guys. I will never forget that sight. They reached me and got me to shore. They were all very attentive to me ashore and I am so grateful for everybody's concern and great care.

My estimate of time in the water is about two hours…It couldn't have been much past four when I went in. The water was very cold, but there were pockets of EXTREMELY cold water that would wash over me from time to time. If all of the water had been as cold as those pockets, well…. I know that I am very fortunate to be here.

What I did right: had some of the needed gear, kept calm, decided not to die, let people know where I was going.

What I did wrong: too inexperienced in the boat and reading sea conditions, went out alone, was underdressed, only had some of the gear needed.

So I am sore and tired and embarrassed. I got my boat back, someone found it at took it into the harbor for me.

I am a person that learns from my mistakes. I am looking forward to getting out there again. I understand and appreciate that people will comment on this story and judge my actions/decisions harshly.
Thanks again to all that helped me out.

Chris

Re: tuesday's rescue
Erik Borgnes
06/03/10 #8580

Interesting, thanks for sharing the specifics. What were you wearing, and how cold were you, and were your arms, fingers still working well after being in the water that long? Pfd on, and if so, was it primarily responsible for keeping you afloat? I am assuming that you did have your pfd on because 2 hrs of treading water would be awfully tiring / difficult in cold water.

A couple of questions that I have had:

Are all buoys “non-climb-uppable”? Why is this? Is there any solution to this, like a packable, small, string ladder that you could keep in your pfd pocket?

I've occasionally looked for inflatable life rings that might provide enough buoyancy to get you up and out of the water a bit more. Stearns and another company make one but it doesn't look that big. I bought a $5 one just for this purpose - to stick in the back pocket of the Mocke - but haven't tried inflating it on the water, and it's kind of a heavy plastic. Seems to me that there ought to be some sort of lightweight personal CO2 inflatable raft / float that we could buy or make and keep in our pfd pockets just for such an occurrence.

Erik

Re: tuesday's rescue
glenn biernacki
06/03/10 #8581

One thing ….. from the point of view of those noticing something is not quite right …. is that yellow paddle float bag he still had in his possession, and used to wave. Visibility was great, and the sun was blocked from interfering by the clouds, but I'm not sure he would have been noticed at that distance from shore, without that splash of color. It was what distinguished him from a seal, or driftwood, or really just a ripple without it.

–glenn

Re: tuesday's rescue
kathleen petereit
06/03/10 #8584

I read on surfski.info, where they did rescue practise with the local CG in SA that one of the items they used to be visible was a foil blanket that the victim waved around in the air. All of us paddlers in Nanaimo carry one of these in our pfd pocket, they are light, compact and cost about $ 4.00. Apparently it worked well because of the light reflecting off it flashing.

They did some pretty intensive rescue research with the CG helicopter, boats, Dawid Mocke and others bobbing around in the rough water, maybe we could post the article on here. It is very informative.

Kathleen

Re: tuesday's rescue
Michael Gregory
06/03/10 #8585

Hi Chris,

Congrats for surviving!!! No need for harsh judgments, here. You know where your mistakes were and you've learned some valuable lessons. Being parted from ones boat in a seaway is a paddlers nightmare. I'd take odds that you will not let that happen again.

I find it notable that you'd left word with someone ashore of your paddling plan, you stayed calm, and you made the decision that death was not an option. All good!

Hope you are getting back to paddling soon. Look forward to seeing you out there.

Mike.

Re: tuesday's rescue
Jim Buchanan <pharm_man001@…>
06/03/10 #8588

Thanks for posting your story here Chris. A great lesson for all of us. As Jeff said keep paddling.

I have given up regular kayaks for surf skis. However I did paddle them for a few years and the one thing I would recommend is taking a full day lesson, if you haven't already - check out seakayakshop.com out of Anacortes. Another great thing to due is spend some time in the Arne Hana Pool. Thursday and Sunday you can spend tons of time nailing your reentrys. Also spend a lot of time on Lake Whatcom or Padden until you get very comfortable - easy to swim to shore and are getting much warmer.

Thanks again Chris for sharing.

Jim

Re: tuesday's rescue
gabe newton
06/03/10 #8589

On the foil blanket, I suppose you would only need half of one as well, giving something like 3' x 3'. But I wonder if neon is more visible in dark/stormy conditions, and I'd guess it would be worthless at night unless someone was already looking for you and searching by spot light.

Gabe

Re: tuesday's rescue
Erik Borgnes
06/03/10 #8591

Good points. Methinks that whatcompaddlers needs to do their own safety research on what works best in the dark and stormy and cloudy NW - which may be a bit different from SA conditions depicted in that surfski.info article.

ERik