How to Equip Your Sea Kayak for Safety

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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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.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 3

Bring some flares in the event of a real emergency where you want to be spotted easily.
Step 4

Wear a watch to time distances and predict the tides.
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 7

Bring a length of cord to use as a tow line.