Surfski Knowledge Base

kathleen petereit
05/26/08 #4426

Shiela from Vic sent me this post fron the San Fran area.

Kathleen

Posted by: “surfskidude”
Sun May 25, 2008 8:29 am (PDT)

First of all, I'd like to say…THANKS to all of you for the support and the feeling of ALOHA I got from everyone after hearing of my little ordeal last week in the water.

Many of you have been asking me to give a more detailed account of what went on that day and in the hopes of helping anyone else in that situation I'm putting down what I think I might have done right or wrong….. I am hoping this will open a little conversation or even criticism that can help other paddlers. Please don't hold back on the criticism if you think it may help or bring an important oversight on my part out in the open.

To summarize….I went into the water about 5pm about a third of a mile north of the SMB close to mid channel. Winds were in the mid-20s WNW at launch time…they would pick up to about 40mph during the time we were out. The EBB had begun slightly before we launched. WE'VE BEEN USING RADIOS IN OUR GROUP FOR AWHILE AS A PADDLER TO PADDLER FORM OF COMMUNICATIONS TO KEEP ANYONE IN THE GROUP FROM GETTING LOST……. MISTAKE…I LEFT MINE IN THE TRUCK THAT DAY AS I 'KNEW' WE WOULDN'T NEED TO TALK TO EACH OTHER IN THIS GROUP…. IT COULD HAVE MADE MY UPCOMING SWIM MUCH SHORTER IN DURATION. RESCUE IS ONLY A CHANNEL 16/9 CALL AWAY!

Three of us were out there and having a blast….speeds on the GPS were 9-12+mph. I was riding to the right down a wave and was trying to really slice it, over steered a little and started slightly back up and into the wave, my speed stalled, the wave slammed over my ride side and I rolled to the left. So far, normal procedure for getting dumped. I was anxious to get going going again as the rides were alot of fun. While under water I could feel the leash sort of tightening against my left shoulder, another large wave was lifting my ski ( and myself ) up and put the boat in a perfect high position for a big guest to get at it and just chuck it out and away from me…..that force was where I lost the grip on my paddle. In what seemed like an instant, while lifting my arm to start the best Mark Spitz sprint imitation possible to get to my ski, was when another wave lifted the ski and a wind that I could feel at the back of my head tossed the boat up in the air..boat AND my paddle were in the air for a second and now the ski was 30+ yards from me….the boat was now moving away from me very quickly and the thought of catching it was gone with it. THAT'S WHEN SOMETHING CLICKED AND I JUST WENT INTO A SURVIVAL MODE…THE FIRST THING I DID WAS TO DO WHATEVER I COULD TO MAKE SURE I COULD STAY AS WARM AS POSSIBLE IN CASE THIS TURNED INTO A LONGER THAN PLANNED DEAL…tighten up the PFD, made sure the neck and wrist gussets on my wind jacket were tight, neoprene hat was tight. I had a 5 serving Hammer Gel bottle in my PFD pocket, so I took a hit on that to keep the calories coming in.

I had total faith in the other paddlers to do what they felt needed to be done when and if necessary, but I also knew that it could be awhile before they could do anything, so my best bet in my opinion was to get to shore? I took into account the tide direction, wave direction ( which was going against the ebb and the more predominant speed ), picked out ELEVATED landmarks for an exit spot incase it did get dark…low ones, unless lit up may disappear at darkness, where I DID NOT WANT TO COME ASHORE, what can I do to make myself seen maybe by someone on shore ( or the other paddlers ). The exit I was hoping for was the small beach where the kite-surfers launch from just north of the SMB?

The swim begins. I was going parallel to the SMB ( it was to my left ), ebbing tide on the left and the waves were hitting me from the right. Quite a few of the waves were slamming over my head and I remembered from rough water swims with experienced swimmers to turn your head as you lift your arm and sort grab a breath under your armpit…worked great. Every now and then I'd watch for a large wave to come by and at the second it would lift me up, I would try and launch myself up and wave my arms…hoping the added height and the bright red sleeves of my jacket would catch someone's eyes on shore? DO EVERYTHING TO MAKE YOURSELF SEEN CAME BACK TO ME FROM A FEW OTHER THINGS I HAVE DONE OVER THE YEARS.

After 45 minutes in the water, I was halfway between the middle of the SMB and shore and losing ground on my exit spot…I was getting pushed to the spot I DID NOT want to exit from…right where the bridge meets the shore…lots of rocks and big funky wave action wouldn't have been a fun thing I thought….at this time, the best thing was for ME to try and choose where I'd have to shoot under the new AND the old SMB, and not let the waves make that decision for me. Now I turned with the waves to my back and started an angel of swimming that would time it so hopefully when I got to the bridge, I'd be right in the middle of the concrete feet of the SMB…I was trying not to have deal with keeping my body off that concrete by pushing at them with my arms and legs.

Within about 30 yards from the bridge, the standing waves were getting huge and I was getting lifted pretty high. As I was going under the bridge, I would yell as loud as I could, a pretty good echo was going on and if the other paddlers were close by, maybe they could hear something…I also tried blowing my safety whistle during this as well earlier in swim from time to time. Luckily I hit the new bridge feet right in the center of two of them, but now the thing that probably had my attention more than anything after deciding to shoot the bridge…getting past the pilings of the OLD SMB…I have been near them alot before, in the direction I was going, the pilings are lined up on your right and left sides, a wall of pilings and only giving me a 'channel' between them of about 10 yards…I had to be able to get cleanly through this channel because of two major things…..the pilings on the left and right are a row and each one in the row is fairly close together, maybe three feet…very important NOT to get tossed INTO that row and the fact they were covered with all kinds of barnacles just made it look like a bunch of razor blades to me….this was about the only time I really thought I may have physical contact with the bridge. I had gloves on which could help a little if I had to push off, booties on the feet would help too, long 2mm neoprene pants might help the legs a little and I lifted my PFD up high on my chest to protect that area as that would be what would hit the pilings if I couldn't keep the waves from pushing me into them? I watched as the waves went under the old bridge and they would go up maybe 3-4 feet and that still gave me maybe four feet over my head, looked like I was okay with my head not hitting anything under the bridge…but I scanned under the bridge just incase there was any old stuff hanging down….my thought was to keep the pilings lined up in my peripheral vision and constantly looking up in case a wave lifted me higher than I thought it would and put me in any danger of hititng my head. My plan was to dive as hard as possible if that happened and hopefully not hit my head. As it turned out a wave came rolling through and while it was a little spooky how high it lifted me, I just kicked as hard as I could and sort of rode it right under the bridge and popped out on the other side…no worries. I might have had a wider than usual smile on my face for a moment..

I could see the beach at Foster City ahead that was our original exit spot for the paddle…..maybe 1.5 miles…so…just kept swimming. As I got closer, I could a crowd, the other paddlers and the fireman that were called. They apologized for not launching thier Zodiac because they said it was too rough. I'm guessing the Coast Guard helo was about to be called when they finally saw the sleeves of my red jacket going up and down in the air. The tide was out far enough that the last hundred yards or so I could crawl out on the mud and my friends helped me get to the more solid ground as my legs were a little wobbly standing in the mud. The fireman checked to make sure I was okay and took down some info, I thanked them very much for their time and they left.

Total time in the water…1:40+, distance swam about 4 miles. I was dressed for the 'swim', so I was a little over dressed for just a paddle, but it payed off…I only got chilled once, but I kept the calories going in and kept moving and cold never seemed to be a factor….

Final thoughts….
-in water that rough, I'm not sure you can be helped by another ski? It would be nice to have another ski as a floatation device with you, but then you have two or more people in the water instead of one.

-ANYTIME I'm in rough water from now on..I will carry a flare gun of some kind…(FYI…I hear those little flare 'tubes' like at REI don't work well….) colder waters and/or a later in the day incident could have made the outcome different here.

-leg leash instead of paddle leash…still not sure on this one..I hear bigger waters with a leg leash can have you being dragged right under the surface? Maybe the wrist attachment Elaine mentioned might be a good way to good as extra insurance?

-ALWAYS have a plan with the other paddlers in case things change…

-TAKE THE RADIO TAKE THE RADIO…one more time TAKE THE RADIO!!!

-Be prepared guys, it's when you're not that something usually happens.

Cheers - Roger