Surfski Knowledge Base

zach
10/09/11 #11496

I am writing all of you to let you know that a surfskier died in Minnesota on Friday. I was one of the four people that was paddling with him that day. I am attaching the description (follows below) of the days events that I previously wrote up as an announcement to the Minnesota community. Most paddlers here are marathon canoe racers, so the description is written to them rather than to experienced surf ski paddlers. The bottom line is that he died because the velcro wrap that attaches the leg leash to the ankle failed, and he was left in in big seas without a boat. He had an expert paddler next to him at the time, but the nature of our gear is such that in big waves we are not able to help each other effectively.

There are many things that need to change about our equipment. Our lives depend on a wrap of velcro around our leg. That is insanely stupid but we all do it. There is a paddler here in Minnesota that wears two leg leashes going to the same leg. That is not paranoid; that is smart. Most boats have no way to attach a tow line, and none of us carry tow lines. That means that if someone loses their boat, you might be able to paddle after it but you'll never be able to bring it back to them. I plan to do end pours on my v12 and drill holes to attach a tow rope. I am going to modify a sea kayak tow rope so that it will have an industrial strength suction cup on the end in place of the carabiner. That way I will be able to tow any boat, even if there is no tie down point on the bow. I never used to carry flares or a strobe light on me, but that will change. I used to keep my marine radio and cell phone on my boat rather than in my PFD. That has to change too.

To appreciate the story I should explain to you lake Mille Lacs. It is a lake in central Minnesota that is essentially a circle 15 miles across. It is a surf skiers dream. A road goes around the lake, so whatever direction the wind is blowing there is a perfect 15 mile downwinder to do. On windy days 8 foot waves are common.

You should also know something about Todd Ellison. He was 50 years old, and as fit as any 50 year old can possibly be. He would rank among the top few marathon canoe racers in the Midwest, and one of the top handful in the entire nation. He was almost as impressive in an ICF sprint Kayak as he was in a canoe. He loved canoe racing, but he was addicted to the speed of a K1.

More importantly, though, Todd was an amazing human being. I have probably never met anybody who was as lighthearted, playful, and curious as Todd. And that is not posthumous exaggeration. I remember one time I met him for a 1 hour after-work paddle in the K1s. Our plan was to get a workout, but somehow he decided we should master the deep water wet entry into an ICF boat instead. He had never heard of anyone doing this before, but suddenly decided that it must be possible and we should master it. We spent the next hour falling out of our kayaks and trying to climb back in. By the time we were done the boats were entirely submerged under the water and we had to paddle them like submarines to to shore. He was laughing so hard he couldn't catch his breath.

If you would like the blow by blow story, from a paddlers perspective, then please read the attached file. If you do not, then please take a few minutes to seriously reassess your boat safety set-up. Have a plan for how to survive when your boat blows away. And have a plan for what to do when you see some one else's boat blows away.

Sincerely,
Zach Handler

Detailed account of kayaker’s death on Mille Lacs

Paddling message boards and forums have lit up in the past 48 hours with news of the death Friday on Lake Mille Lacs of respected kayak racer Todd Ellison, 50, of Marine on St. Croix.

The Aitkin County sheriff’s office is leading the investigation; preliminary findings of an autopsy determined he died of hypothermia.

Members of his paddling party have put out a highly detailed account of what transpired that led to Ellison being alone on the windy lake clinging to a surfski — a long, narrow kayak similar to a racing kayak but used on rough water.

Carl Shaffer, director of racing for the Minnesota Canoe Association, said the account below was sent to him directly by Zach Handler, who was on the water with Ellison Friday.

Here’s the account, in its entirety, as Handler e-mailed it:

Many of you may have heard already through word of mouth or through the media that Todd Ellison died on Friday October 7th on lake Mille Lacs.

This is devastating for everyone, but most of all Todd’s mother, JoAnne his sister, Lisa, and immediate family. I know that you all have questions. My goal here is to provide a complete factual account of what occurred. This is to spare all of you from any misinformation that may develop as rumors spread, but also to spare everyone involved from having to recount a painful story too many times. Please forward this to those who know Todd and are not on this email list. I do not have everyone’s contact information.

Here is what happened:

Five of us (Todd Ellison, Zach Handler, Mike Brumbaugh, Jon Sanborn, and John Abrahams) left in surfskis from cove bay at the south end of lake Mille Lacs. The goal was to paddle north by northeast to Malmo, a 16 mile down wind run. This is a typical surfski trip for us.
Conditions were not extreme: Air temperature 77F, water 60F, wind 20 – 30 mph from the south, sunny skies. Waves were moderate. Perhaps 4 to 6 feet from trough to crest in most sections of the lake, but some sections were much flatter. These are not extreme conditions in a surfski. However, there are areas in the lake where “reefs” of piled stone come close to the surface and cause large waves in a very small area. Some of these isolated waves associated with these reefs may have been 12 feet tall. Those were large waves.

The plan, from before we got on the water, was that one of the most experienced paddlers in the group would escort Todd, the least experienced in terms of big waves, in the event that Todd was having any difficulty. Todd was in one of John Abraham’s surfskis, a custom kayaks Synergy. This is an extremely stable boat in big water, which is why we insisted that Todd use it. It was much more seaworthy than Todd’s own surfski.

As far as safety equipment, this is what we had: Everyone had on neoprene, a life jacket, and a leg leash. We had 3 vhf radios and 4 cell phones. Todd was wearing a 3mm farmerjohn wet suit and two rashguards on top. He had a life jacket on, a leash from his ankle to the boat, and a cell phone in a waterproof case.

Todd was actually handling the waves just fine, though at a slower pace then everyone else. This was not unexpected given his smaller amount of big wave experience. That said, he was paddling well, and enjoyed surfing waves for 80 to 100 yards at a time. Todd was having a great time. But because he was slower, and also getting pushed slightly off course, we did implement the agreed upon plan, which was that one of the strongest paddlers would be next to Todd’s boat at all times.

Everything was going fine until about half way across the lake. This was in the area of “three mile reef” which is about 2.5 miles off the east shore of the lake. At that point, Todd capsized, likely caused by one of the bigger waves associated with the reef. A capsize in a surfski is like taking a fall downhill skiing. It happens all the time and is an expected part of the sport. The fact that Todd had only one fall in that distance of paddling shows that he had been handling the conditions quite well.

The catastrophic event was that when Todd came to the surface of the water, he was no longer attached to his boat. Examination of the boat the following day revealed that the failure was in the velcro wrap that secures the leash to the ankle. In the several seconds it took for Todd to get to the surface and get his bearings, his boat was already blown out of reach. He swam to the the boat that was escorting him, and tried to climb on, which caused that boat to capsize. The waves were very big at that point, and the escort surfski was one of the tippy racing models that the vast majority of us paddle. At that point Todd climbed onto the escort ski, and was balanced there without a paddle. The escort paddler, in the water at this point, separated from his ski and made a desperate attempt to swim for Todd’s boat. This was unsuccessful. He returned to his boat. At that point Todd was back in the water. It is impossible to simply balance in one of these boats in big waves without a paddle.
Given the size of the waves, and the tippyness of the boat, there was unfortunately no way for one of them to paddle as the other held on to the boat. The boat would simply capsize immediately when they tried that.

So at that point it was the two of them, holding onto the boat, bobbing along in large waves. They did that for about 10 minutes.
They did not have a means of communication because the cellphone was on Todd’s boat, which was long gone. This is where a decision had to be made. There were only two options. One was to simply bob along like that hoping that they washed into shore. The other was for one of them to leave the other floating, and to make a desperate attempt to paddle to shore and get help. Between the two of them they decided on the latter plan.

This was clearly the correct decision to make. By paddling to shore, a search party could be mounted within an hour. If they had stayed with the boat, there would have been no search party. That is because it was expected that Todd and his escort could have taken up to 2 – 3 hours longer to make the crossing. By the time the others already on shore had decided something was definitely wrong, it would have been getting dark and no effective search could have been mounted. A loose surfski blows across the water fast, but a ski anchored by two people in the water does not. The trajectory the wind was going would have blown them 8 – 10 miles before they hit shore. They would have been moving at perhaps 1/2 mile per hour.

So the escort paddler had to abandon his good friend in the water.
Todd was calm and in agreement with the plan. The escort paddler, full of adrenaline, raced to shore like hell in large and breaking beam waves. He aimed for resort on shore. It took 45 minutes to get to shore and call 911. Very soon there were multiple search boats on the water. It was too windy for a helicopter, so a fixed wing airplane was flying a grid pattern above the waves. This started by 4 pm.
Sunset was 7 pm. The search continued until about 9pm and then was halted for the night. The rest of us, in the company of the sheriff deputy and other rescue personnel, watched from shore until 9pm.

The reality is that in large waves, it is nearly impossible to spot another paddler, not to mention a swimmer’s head bobbing along. Todd was wearing a blaze orange hunting cap which we had tied to his life jacket. The authorities knew this and were looking for that color.

The following morning the search resumed. We were up at day break to resume the search ourselves from boat and by foot. Just after daybreak, one of the 4-wheelers that had been driving the perimeter of the lake through the night, located Todd’s boat. It was exactly where we expected it would meet land. We immediately drove to that location to begin our own search of the shoreline in our surfskis, looking for any signs of Todd. Shortly thereafter we were alerted by the sheriff that Todd’s body had been located. He was found dead in the water, about a mile from where he was capsized. This was the area in which all search efforts had been concentrated the previous afternoon.

Kate Ellis accompanied by one of her close friends came up in Friday evening to assist in our search the next morning. Kate’s friend went with the sheriff and confirmed that the body was Todd.

At this point we do not know why Todd died. Preliminary assessment by rescue personnel found his chest to be tight, suggesting that he drowned, rather than dying of hypothermia, but that is purely speculation. They believed he had been dead quite a long time. We do not know if he had a heart attack from the stress of the situation, or if he got pushed against a submerged rock by a large wave. It is all a guess. The medical examiner will do an autopsy to determine the exact mechanism of death. We do not know the time frame on getting that completed, but we will keep the paddling community informed.

We are all devastated by this experience, and none of us are doing very well. We lost a cherished friend and paddling partner. All of you have also lost Todd. Personally I cannot fully express my grief.
I hope that this account gives all of you some comfort.

As a group we have decided that all media requests should be directed to Kjell Peterson, who knew Todd the best of any paddler other than Kate.

We were all blessed to have the opportunity to know such a fine human being, and he will never be replaced.

At some point in the next few weeks we will have some sort of a memorial/celebration of Todd’s life. We will let the paddling community know the details as we figure them out.

Zach Handler
On behalf of Jon, John, Mike, Kate and Kjell

Surfskier death due to failed leg leash.
gabe newton
10/09/11 #11499

It is always hard to hear about the loss of another great individual in the community… and to learn yet another lesson at such great cost. My condolences to all.

On the subject of boat recovery, I learned in Australia that Dawid Mocke has been known to recover a surfski and paddle it back to the stranded paddler by putting one leg in the empty boat (and I infer that he would use each foot to work the peddles of each ski.) This is of course not something that just anyone can do, or that is even possible in all conditions, (and it is by no means a method to replace a bomber leash or achieving the towability of a ski,) but a method to perhaps practice and have in mind if/when sh*t does hit the fan. I hope to learn more about this technique, and perhaps have Dawid or another veteran paddler do a clinic on surfski safety when they are in the region.

I also gather from this incident that it is of utmost importance to have your phone/VHF on your person, not on the boat, and that every paddler in the group should have one or the other.

Gabe

zach

10/10/11 #11500

There is another lesson here. A body in the water does not move very fast, even in strong wind and waves. In 12 hours Todd had drifted only about a mile. Knowing that, I would advise to everyone that they know how to mark a location on their GPS. This probably takes only a few pushes of a button if you have the sequence memorized. If you do not have this memorized, and have not practiced doing so as a drill, you will not think to do it in an emergency, and will be unable to figure out how to do it in crashing waves. If we had had a GPS coordinate the search would have been much more targeted.

zach
10/10/11 #11501

A picture of Todd doing what he loved:

todd_ellison

Tim Overland
10/10/11 #11503

Very sad news. I hope to never have to read another account like that.

In SF, Dawid Mocke, always innovating, had his leash carabinered
directly to his PFD. I have since converted to (copied) this system,
and not only is it a more reliable connection to the boat, but I find
it easier to remount, as the pfd leash seems to tangle less getting
back in the boat than the leg leash. I think it's time to get rid of
the velcro.

Tim

Larry <lbussing@…>
10/10/11 #11504

And the Radio or GPS need to be on. I turned my on a week ago to test everything and it took 15 minutes to acquire a signal good enough to get the position. Most GPS's and radios with a GPS will have a Man Overboard function that will store the location with a button held down. Learn how to do it and practice it so you remember that it there in an emergency. In an emergency, you will be operating on pre-planned responses and experiences.

Larry B

Michael Gregory
10/10/11 #11506

No doubt equipment; clothing, leash, signaling device, sound boat, and good judgement are are all necessary. However, each time a group goes out, they need to start off together. Everyone should know who is out there. Not just your “designated buddy”, the whole damn group. Rendevous positions should be a routine part of our paddles, especially in winter.

Frankly, I think we need to decease using the names of the guys lost on the water in our general communications. In such a setting using names is unecessary.

My deep condolences to the family and friends of the departed.

Mike

Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
10/10/11 #11507

I've used a carabiner to pfd leash system for several years, and it works very well. Each leash end has two points of attachment to both the ski and the carabiner (marine grade stainless steel, which can be purchased with a quick release mechanism as used by sailors), in case the first point fails. The leash is 5/16“ marine grade elastic shock cord, that has a safe working load of 350 lbs, which is about 20% of its tensile strength (dynamic load strength unknown, but it feels bomber). The carabiner attaches to the belt of the pfd.

Reivers Dustin
10/10/11 #11508

If we go with MG's suggestion then everyone needs to have nicknames (our callsign). So who assigns our handles? (ooh, let me do it! - moowhawhaawhaaa!!!)

But seriously; Jeff, did you do the rear-deck attachment with the caribiner thing? Was it the 'dog-run' type like Kim's? I'm thinking this only works if you have a pretty clean rear deck. You can't put stuff on your rear bungies.

By the way, which surfski paddlers in the room think they can rescue somebody in big water? It's very tricky business.

In all this we are remembering that each and every piece of equipment has to work. Dead right, or right dead. Leashed to a sinking boat is sad. Rudders, hatches, clothing, cables, paddles … have to be bomber. If you have a good VHF, you have one exit door. Maybe a personal Epirb - but very slow. On the other hand: Flares, smoke, mirrors, dye, semaphore flags, whistles, operatic vocal cords … not so good in the raging briney (fucking worthless).

rd

Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
10/10/11 #11509

Thank you, Zach. We are sorry for your loss, and appreciate that you are sharing it with us.

dnjacobson79
10/10/11 #11510

Very sad news about the death of the ski paddler, I think our friend JD at the Gorge has gone over how easily velcro can fail in the pre-wildside talk so that anyone who's done the race should have gotten the memo. Nomatter how bomber gear is (and I'm glad folks are thinking about safety in design), all gear can fail. Paddling ski is like all action sports which have an element of risk, and though I feel the risks are much lower than lots of outdoor action sports, they still exist. Having top safety gear and knowing how to use it is important, but good judgement and having the skills to handle changing conditions is the most important factor. Groups dynamics can be hard at times, and though it's always good to paddle with others in big conditions, I'm not sure it's good to depend on them for a water rescue - DJ

PS - I thing I remeber Kristen rescued someone on the back of her boat this summer in choppy conditions, and it was a struggle in the medium conditions they were in.

Erik Borgnes

10/10/11 #11511

I really feel horrible about this incident as I've paddled with some of these guys and have seen and shared their enormous enthusiasm for this fringe warm water sport way up in the frozen north. We can't help but try to ponder the whys, and what-ifs, and the “that-coulda-been-me's” in attempt to hope to affect the outcome of a future event.

We all take chances with what we do, though the risks overall are minimal. As my buddy Alan said, we've got a clash of worlds going on when we go for near-minimalism combined with maximal weather. I'm oftentimes guilty of the this.

Big water doesn't necessarily mean big risk but it does necessitate big preparedness which includes acknowledging and planning for the most likely behaviors:

It's tough to predict what one will decide to do when in a serious situation like what happened. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that when there are two paddlers and one boat and one paddler leaves to go get help, the other paddler's chances of survival plummet both unexpectedly and quickly. While on land and yakking about it, this seems maybe intuitive. But, out on the water it ain't so. Why? What is likely happening is that survival instinct plays a huge role in decision making when one is in a potentially serious situation like this. Survival instinct isn't necessarily a bad thing either, because if it halves the number of victims then it's a good thing.

Think about what happens when the situation gets more and more futile, and as the rescuer gets colder and is cognizant of his deteriorating condition, and the situation starts to really become serious, the subconscious mind takes over and influences the rescuer to bugger out while he is still able to. If this is what occurs with most of us, and if we all know this beforehand, (that the subconscious survival instinct might take over), then we need to have a device or plan where the rescuer consciously and subconsciously chooses to stay with the guy in the water because doing so will increase his own odds of survival the most.

So, maybe that's how we need to frame this, i.e. what behavior is most likely to occur with all of us, and what solution stacks the odds in favor of the paddlers staying together? Reivers keeps throwing it out there - the vhf. It seems to come down to having the vhf with you and on your body.

Pulling it all together - the vhf is the single piece of equipment that changes the scenario because it keeps both paddlers together. Consider this: Two paddlers, one boat, the situation is getting serious. They hail for help on the vhf, get acknowledged, and then wait . . . At this point, the paddlers have given info to the CG with approximate location, boat color, and number of paddlers. Once that info is tranmitted and acknowledged, then the rescuer, consciously and subconsciously, knows that his best chance of survival is to be where they told the CG they were. If the rescuer were to then leave that spot and take the ski for any reason, he would likely not be increasing his own chances of survival. The vhf changes the behavior once it's used.

If you are paddling alone, then the other stuff like flares, etc might be good backups to the vhf, but in a group, it's vhf on the body, first, second and third. Minimalism includes the vhf. I need to start thinking about my vhf this way - and I need to practice using it. Pfd, leash, vhf.

EB

zach
10/11/11 #11512

On the subject of VHF radios we clearly made a horrible mistake by not having a marine radio on everybody's PFD.

However I do not want people to come away from this discussion with an unrealistic expectation of what a marine band radio is capable of. The range of a 5W marine radio in ideal conditions is 5 miles. The signal travels line of sight and is blocked by objects. a swimmer in the water is holding the radio 6” above the waterline. The waves are much bigger than that. If the call is placed from the trough of a wave I doubt there is much effective range. In my personal experience it is hard to hear my radio (I bought the loudest model I could find) above the wind and the waves. As far as contacting someone other than your fellow paddler, that is dependent on having someone within the range of your device who has a vhf radio on at the time and is monitoring channel 16. That may work near busy ports, etc, but is less likely to work in rural areas, in the the off season, and on stormy days when there are no boats on the water.

And please understand this is not me being defensive about the mistakes we made. I just think that we need to reassess all our assumptions about our safety equipment.

zach
10/11/11 #11513

In many areas a cell signal is more likely to get to help than a VHF signal. This app is $0.99

http://emergencybeaconapp.com/

Reivers Dustin
10/11/11 #11514

Zach, I come across a little strong on this topic - forgive me.

There is no other practical way to communicate with rescue authority. Some coastal areas have instituted a program called rescue 21. A portable VHF with Digital Select Calling and GPS will transmit distress code directly to an equipped Coast Guard facility automatically (one button = position fix alert).

The intention of a VHF is to call rescue authority. If you don't have the fancy VHF, but live around major ports, they usually have buried array antanea that can detect low power signals. My mayday call from near Chuckanut Island was picked up first by Victoria BC well over 20 miles away. I have also been detected by Port Angeles C.G. The Bellingham (closest) CG station has rescue 21, but not the expensive antanea.

If you use a cell phone you'll be dealing with jurisdiction issues and lengthy response time. If you use personal Epirb it gets worse. In my opinion, considering the risks, the VHF is a no brainer. I suppose we could bring up the idea that having the VHF makes you more of a risk taker, or maybe there is a brian cancer problem.

Having faced the choice of trying to rescue a friend with my tippy boat or leave them behind: I choose neither - I'll call a taxi.

Hope this contributes to the discussion. I am so grateful that you are part of it Zach.

rd

Michael Gregory
10/11/11 #11515

By all means, assess and reassess . . . As you all point out, ones plan must be multifaceted. VHF is only one part of a comprehensive paddling plan (cell phone might be a good option with it's better range):

-Choose a more stable ski on big days and COLD water.
-Appropriate clothing. Neoprene is a very worthy option).
-PFD.
-Leash.
-Remount IN ROUGH WATER skills.
-Paddle with buddies.
-What else guys?

Mike

seaugi.kayaking
10/11/11 #11516

At the USSSC this past August in San Fran, Sean Rice forgot his leash one day and used one of the long boat tie downs.

Wrapped once around the waist, then looped through the front with a water knot. “Completely bomber and minimal” no velcro to fail.

I like the idea of it, other than being attached to a boat that could sink, the only other down side I can think of would be the strap becoming too tight once you've fallen off the boat. Both easily dealt with by good knots.

Any one else try that here ?

oceanpaddlesports@…
10/11/11 #11517

Just something small to add here..first my deepest sympathy to family and friends..all involved. I am so sorry. It's horrible to imagine such tragedy with our sport.

For what is worth and I am not an expert in this because where we paddle its warm and usually we are close enough to shore to swim in should something happen…but on cold big days out more than say 2 miles, as a group we do 5-7 minute pieces,letting the slower paddlers (me) go first by a minute or two. Then faster ones (Pat and Phillipe, Rich, etc) play catch up and when the piece is over, they circle back into the wind to regroup and on it goes. At least if something goes wrong, more than one other is there to assist.
This doesn't work very well if the slower paddlers is having a super hard time and the rest of the group gets cold or can't circle back or whatever..had this happen too and we had to abort the paddle altogether,slam into the beach in huge surf and wait for a car to come and get…but as a group we had to decide this out there…could have gone bad either way.
Not much to offer but since its being discussed…

DeAnne

Michael Gregory

10/11/11 #11518

Wow! Sooo damn cool. Get the app and a water-proof transparent pouch for the celly! But, pretend you really don't have it. That way ya gotta cover all the other bases that keep a paddler safe out there. Mike.

Erik Borgnes
10/11/11 #11519

This is a great point, Zach, it all depends upon where the paddlers are. I'm in Washington so the vhf is the best here because we're surrounded by CG. Beforehand, I was on the Great Lakes where there was a lot of CG presence. I don't have enough experience on large inland lakes to know if monitoring ch 16 is a given.

EB