How to Equip Your Sea Kayak for Safety

Having the proper safety equipment in your sea kayak can be the difference between life and death in extreme cases. The extent to which you load up on emergency gear will depend however, on the length of your trip and the difficulty of the sea passages you choose to travel through.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Pack a first aid kit on even the shortest of trips. There are countless minor injuries that can and do occur while paddling as well as exploring for a short while during a break.
2. Prepare a repair kit that could patch various objects such as your boat, spray skirt, tent, jacket etc. Include scissors or a knife, needle and thread, pliers, patches, duct tape, adhesives, lighter and so on.
3. Bring some flares in the event of a real emergency where you want to be spotted easily.
4. Wear a watch to time distances and predict the tides.
5. Use a Compass and a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit to pin point your location when you are so far out to sea that no land marks can be seen. Remember that a compass does not rely on batteries or outside technologies to make it work.
6. Equip your kayak with some sort of pump to bail out the kayak. A sponge is useful for small amounts of water, while a hand pump works well for the heavier leakages caused by holes in a spray skirt and the like. For a longer excursion, a bilge pump placed behind the seat can make a capsized and fully loaded boat possible to re-enter, where tradition deep water rescues would be impossible.
7. Bring a length of cord to use as a tow line.

Tips & Warnings

• Become familiar with every item of safety equipment you bring along. A real emergency is no time to learn how to fix a tow line or search blindly through your first aid kit.
• Sea kayaking can be a very fun and relaxing sport. However, as with any sport dealing with open water, it has many inherent dangers. When learning how to sea kayak, it is a good idea to seek out professional instruction.