Surfski Knowledge Base

fennmako
11/01/09 #7271

I'm surprised no-one has ventured a post-mortem of Saturday's chaos. It certainly made me realize that we seem to have learned very little as a group, and technically, we perhaps aren't as capable as we often think we are? I'm concerned that another accident may be in the offing unless we start thinking stuff through a little more than we do.

Simon

Re: Saturday Paddle
Michael Gregory
11/01/09 #7272

Post-mortem? Please, Simon.

Let's break yesterdays little adventure down just a bit, ok?
- Conditions deteriorated rapidly, surprising us all. The westerly flow, unexpectedly, created the biggest gnarliest conditions we've encountered on B'ham Bay, particularly off of “the wall”. Bigass waves EVERYWHERE!!!
- The bunch did not stick together. Some spent time looking for one of our party that never launched. Some of the more perceptive guys in the group headed off from Wildcat Cove early and others hung out surfing near the launch.
- Personally, I failed to wear wetsuit/drysuit and when I got cold my meager boat handling skills went south fast. Eric W. rafted up with me and saved my bacon, for shure. BTW, my ski survived - thanks to Peter and Morris.

So, my little list of notes to myself:
-Dress appropriately in cold weather.
-“The wall” sucks in a westerly!
-Gently remind the group that we need to mind each others backs!

What else guys?

Re: Saturday Paddle
fennmako
11/01/09 #7273

Whoaa, steady there Mike. I'm not trying to criticize, just raising some concerns. And by the way, I wasn't aimlessly surfing at the start; I was waiting to accompany Morris, and by the time we teamed up, everyone else had left.

Re: Saturday Paddle
Michael Gregory
11/01/09 #7274

No worry, Simon. Just pimpin' your sorry old Saffa arse out a bit and gettin'. the guys attention

Re: Saturday Paddle
Larry Goolsby
11/01/09 #7275

I was going to keep quiet about Saturday but it is good that you guys are raising some concerns. From the start, there were 8 paddlers spread outside of Wild cat Cove and pointing their boats in different directions. Rounding up a group like this would be similar to herding cats. I milled about for almost 10 minutes before turning my boat and heading north hoping that this would encourage everyone to do the same.

Before I made it to Governor's, I realized that conditions had gone south and I turned around to count heads. I couldn't find a single paddler. I think the first lesson here is that the group thing doesn't really work. We should have paired up on the shore and stuck with our buddy. The problem with this is: what if your buddy suddenly can't handle the situation and you can. In these conditions, it was very hard to sit still. Every time a wave washed over me and I was forced to brace, it was very hard to get forward motion because other waves would pummel me before I could get a stroke in. So after Governors, I didn't stop to look anymore. Every paddler in the water that day had raced at the USSSC at some time or another or several times. The conditions weren't really any worse than last years race except that the waves on Saturday were hitting us on the beam instead of from behind.

So what do we do next time? Buddy up? Every man for himself unless he is able to assist? Require radios on everyone? I think that if you don't own a radio, seriously consider buying one. I didn't panic simply because I had really good pfd, I was dressed warm, and I had one of those new-fangled radios that not only calls for help for you, it also tells the CG where in the hell you are treading water. This is good discussion material.
LG

Re: Saturday Paddle
Reivers Dustin
11/02/09 #7283

It might be vietnam PTSD, but I tend to be hyper-sensitive to who is in the group. Many years ago four of us did a seventy mile stretch of Vancouver Island coastline around Brooks pennensula. The four of us looked each other over pretty carefully. The next year the team make up changed and I opted out based on concerns over the group make-up. These paddles are small unit operations and if you think that because you are strong in yourself you'll be fine - think again. You are extremely dependant on the weakest member and the serviceability of the equipment. As more surfskiers show up the range of abilities gets wider. This is a good reason not to post news about the more extreme runs. Let's not glamorize things.

1) If you are not willing to leave someone to die - your fate is tied to theirs. If this is a person that panics or does not take proper care of their gear you may not know about it. I've considered how to protect myself from a death partnership with another paddler: thus the VHF radio. I might have to save myself and leave you to the C.G. If you aren't packing a radio, does this sound like a good deal to you? You do not get to ride on my boat: I'll be needing it.

2) Many of us have done some kind of assistance things, but we all really know that mostly you can't do much for somebody in the water. Especially if there is a gear problem. I guess the comfort factor should not be overlooked, but if there's a paddler down, everything starts going to hell very quickly.

3) When you jump out of an airplane you become intimately aware of your dependance on your gear. This is the same, but we float. So we can pretend that we can find a way around problems. You are betting your life on that rudder cable, rubber stopper, leash and paddle. (And probably betting the life of your buddy too.) Be a McGuyver in some other sport.

4) I think we should do pre-meetings. But I'm not sure we'll be able to tell who should not go on a paddle. It's very hard to judge the conditions (like Sat) and compare abilities. It was calm looking from Larrabee put-in. It's probably more realistic if you look at who is in the group and opt yourself out based on what you see. That is, unless everyone is together enough to do an intervention.

My own take on Saturday: not nearly as dangerous as many other times. Those Westerlies make it the shits to paddle in - so it couldn't have been fun. But nobody was likely to get blown off-shore. High marks for the post paddle recovery. We had C.G. on station quickly just in case and had observers in good commo very quickly. We had everyone located and secured in short order - probably within 2 hrs of put-in.

rd

Re: Saturday Paddle
Dale McKinnon
11/02/09 #7284

It was calm looking from Larrabee put-in.

One small point about weather patterns on Bellingham Bay. November and April are reliably our windiest and quirkiest weather months. If you put in at Larrabee just before 10 a.m. it WAS relatively calm. But at 10:05 you started getting WSW wind gusts up to 26mph that lasted for exactly one hour (http://www.bellcold.com/download.txt). Ordinarily we all pay attention to our prevailing weather patterns that combine with the tide to create fun bumps and we can trust our experience and online resources. However, I don't know if these gusts could have been predicted. But I would very gently like to point out that a very similar occurrence was recorded on November 15 at 4:55 p.m., two years ago. What was relatively manageable suddenly blew up. Unfortunately, nightfall was a compounding problem.

Please listen to your own feedback and take the step of organizing yourselves before you go out. And make sure everyone has a VHF strapped to their PFD. Do I dare point out that you are sorely pushing Darwin's envelope by not having a VHF, particularly after everything that has gone down in the past three years?