The Kayaking Buddy System & Safety Tips

Video Transcript

"My name is Lloyd Reeves. We are going to talk a little bit about kayak safety. There are an awful lot of things going on with kayak safety. Probably the best thing is always paddle with somebody. If you are going into an area that is going to require towing, one of you should carry a line. If you are going by yourself, you can’t really tow yourself very well. I know a lot of paddlers out there carry a spare paddle with them on the back of their sea kayak. Before you invest some money in that, take your kayak out into the water and try paddling with your bare hands. You might be shocked how fast your boat goes. We found out that you can get almost up to hall speed with just your bare hands and that way you will have a better idea of what is going on for self-rescue. Depending on where you go make sure you know what the conditions are whether it has to do with tides, current and winds. A good example is people paddling off shore and then having an off shore breeze develop and then next thing you know they are on their way to Hawaii which is not good. First aid kits if you are in a group. I like the guys that take their cell phone and put it in a zip lock bag that so it is water tight but you have to make sure wherever it is you are going you have reception for that. If you have a sea kayak that is rollable or white water boat you really have to get your roll dialed in. Locally our college does it in a heated pool. They give you lessons to where you learn to do hip snaps and it is wonderful. You got to remember how to get out of that though. A pump on a sea kayak you have to have because if you blow your roll you are going to come out, a swamp boat and you really need to be able to rescue it. A lot of this stuff should be practiced in an area where if you blow it you just swim to the side. You don’t want to have a problem out on the ocean 4 miles between islands. Get instructions, if you get a paddler magazine they have ACA classes in there you can take for sea kayaking in particular and also white water classes but a class in invaluable. If you only learn one thing, it is worth the money."