Hi all, I've read some great tales and advice on offshore water safety in these forums and have been busy building up my own experience & kit so that I'm feeling really comfortable 'out there'. There's still one scenario that bothers me & I was wondering what others might carry to help them 'get back' in the event of a broken paddle? So your a couple of km offshore, paddle snaps & maybe conditions are working against you.
As far as I can see it's a case of prone paddling, in which case we should probably be training for this too & not going further out than we can prone paddle (against the tide & wind, I wouldn't even know)
Does anyone have any magical device that they carry, are there 3 piece emergency paddles that would go in a backpack? I don't really want to carry more bits, but I don't want to be asking for rescue just because I fell on my paddle. Has anyone got any victory at sea stories to tell.
JP
You raise an interesting point. I was talking to a kayak guy on the weekend and he asked "where do you guys keep your spare paddle and stuff?"
I broke a paddle once...was only about 300m from shore out on a lazy point break BUT about 2k downwind from where my car was parked. Tried proning it back to the car, cracked the sh1ts with that, rode the shorey in and walked back (faster but not so fun with a 15kg board). If I was somewhere a bit less hospitable the solution would have been less easy.
Have often though that if I ever did any proper touring I'd bring along a spare paddle, maybe a 3 piece or a decent adjustable, get some EZ plugs and bungee it and whatever other gear down. If you google Bart de Zwart you'll see some pretty creative gear carrying on a SUP.
Interesting thought! We haven't done much downwinder paddles though I did lose my "supposed to float" paddle once (it sunk!) and had to prone paddle it back in, lucky we weren't too far away just catching waves, and that was far enough to prone paddle it. The water was only 1.5m deep or so but you don't like to get back in the water to hunt stuff up when there might be a croc or stingers floating around.. but then again if a croc wants you it'll get you. I guess you could always strap on a short paddle for kayaks and just paddle back kneeling?
I broke my paddle as I was 1 mile offshore, SUP-surfing an offshore reef. perfect session, broke my paddle by falling on it after 5 hours surfing. I was a bit wary of the paddle back since I was exhausted, but I found out a very good technique:
lay totally flat (prone) on the board. I slipped the (remains of my) paddle in my leash velcro at the knee.
lay the left arm totally loose (to be able to rest it) straight ahead of you on the board while paddling 4-5 strokes with the right arm.
at the end of the 5th stroke, lay the right arm on the board and repeat with left arm.
This way I was able to get back in a pinch (took 25mn back instead of 20mn going out paddling), impervious to wind. I felt I could have made many more miles this way: my body was totally relaxed (head on the board: chin or cheek or front), the arm on the board was able to entirely recuperate between strokes.
I tried regular prone or knee paddling at first, but couldn't sustain it more than 50 meters in a row due to exhaustion and lack of training.
Since then, I never thought of bringing a spare paddle, since this technique is so efficient. Some cushion to rest the chin on would be nice however, to rest the neck muscles.
