Surfski Knowledge Base

Larry Goolsby
12/22/07 #3919

Thia story is a great example on why we need to practice rescue
skills, even if it is just rescuing ourselves. Erik B. emailed me
over a month ago about doing a swim (New Year's day?) in order to
test how our drysuits/wetsuits will protect us against the cold. I
have been trying to think of how we could do some sort of race
(swimming?) and this recent rescue has given me an idea. What if we
did a race on the bay going from point A to Point B with one person
in a surfski and another in a drysuit? We could drop a buoy off of
Marine park and have teams of two. You would leave the beach with
your 'swimmer' and do the best to drag them out to the buoy and back
again. Maybe we could con Dale into bringing her Zodiac out just in
case we need assistance. New Year's is 10 days away, any takers? Any
better ideas?
LG

New Year's Day Swim/Paddle…………
Larry Goolsby
12/23/07 #3925

All right, it sounds like we need to do this. On New Year's day, the
highest tide is between 10 am and noon so in order to allow a couple of
the late nighters to sleep in, let's do this at 10 am. If you don't
have a drysuit, you can be a paddler (you can do the swim in a
wetsuit). I'll bring a buoy that we can anchor about 50-100 yards off
shore and come up with a prize for the winning team. A LeMans style
start would be nice followed by each team paddling/dragging themselves
out around the buoy and back. Outriggers would be welcome…..
LG

New Year Days race
kathleen petereit
12/26/07 #3941

Larry G,

Seeing as your are head coach and owner of the the BCKC facilities, for
your New Year Day race I thought in order for everyone to get the
towing experience, once you get to the bouy you should have the paddler
dump and have swimmer mount and tow back. Although at this point
swimmer may be unable to grip the paddle.

Hmmmmmm might be a lot of new drysuits out on that day ??????

With the exception of Heather and Brandon. Baby HB may not appreciate
this manoeuver and would probably want mom to stay in the boat ! Hope
you have a photographer there….

:) Kathleen

Re: New Year Days race
Larry Goolsby
12/27/07 #3942

Kathleen…..Switching off at the buoy has already been a point to
ponder. The only problem is some paddlers might be significantly
different from each other: wide seat vs. narrow seat, left hand
feather vs. right hand feather, long legs (Brandon) vs. short legs
(everyone else). We'll have to see who shows up and decide what kind
of rules we need in order to complicate things. I have accumulated a
box-o-beer (that oughta get the Canadians down here) for the winning
team. This could be fun if it wasn't in the middle of winter.
Larry G.
— In whatcompaddlers@…, “island_hukigirl”
<island_hukigirl@…> wrote:

Larry G

Re: New Year Days race
Reivers Dustin
12/27/07 #3943

A good thing to put out here up-front is that quitting is a great
option. It's counter to a lot of programming. For instance go there
and decide that the water looks funny. Or whatever.

Reading about Kathleen's experimental work makes me think hard about
setting the buoy as the turning mark. (I'm planing to be one of the
swimmers.)

Hopefully we'll get some extra paddlers to just do the route without
draging a body around so we have some back-up guys. And now that I
think of it, I remember Brian B in his outrigger getting my daughter
out of a jam on a Wednesday nighter a few years ago. Can we get any
outrigger paddlers into this?

RD

Sea Kayaker Magazine…
Brandon Nelson <brandon@…>
12/28/07 #3944

We just got the February ’08 issue of Sea Kayaker Magazine In yesterday’s mail, and after flipping through it to browse the articles, I was struck by how timely and ironic the subject matter is with all that the group has been experiencing and talking about lately.

First, there’s a phenomenal feature article on “Cold Shock” – the ugly, much quicker-killing relative of hypothermia. Part of what is explained by the uber-qualified author is that, whereas hypothermia kills after 30 minutes, cold shock kills in 3-5 minutes. Rather than try to summarize any more of the article, let me just copy the author’s bio here:

Chris Brooks is a physician, scientist and inventor. He is the director of research and development at Survival Systems Ltd. Darmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, and is an adjunct professor in the faculty of health and human performance at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Chris wrote the report “Survival in Cold Water – Staying Alive” in 2003 for the Marine Safety Directorate of Transport Canada.

Needless to say, I found the in-depth article absolutely profound.

Next, in the safety section, there is a first-hand account of a “World Class Athlete” who attempted to cross Lake Michigan width-wise from Michigan to Wisconsin. He lived… but Good God, you’ve got to read the story. Here’s a pertinent excerpt to ponder with all our recent discussion of VHFs and EPIRBS…

From the captain of the commercial vessel who rescued him: “We heard nothing on our radio – in fact, the guys took the EPIRB off your life jacket and even though the red light was flashing and beeper was beeping, it wasn’t transmitting.”

And… the “Strategy” feature in the issue is titled, of all things, “Strategies for Towing.”

Got an extra $5 laying around? Definitely a worthy investment.

Brandon