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#1
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Into and out of the Kayak
Ok, here is probably the dumbest "newbie" question of the year.
Yesterday I purchased a new Sundance 120 after three test paddles. However each time I test paddled the yak, there was an employee there to help me enter and exit the yak next to a pier. So....now I have it home and am anxious to take it out soon. I assume I won't be doing the pier entry and exit as I will be alone. How do I get in and out of the darn thing? Do I float it out into a foot or so of water? Then what? Same thing on exiting. How do I actually get in and out? ( I TOLD you this would be dumb) Trust me, I am signed up for a three hour lesson in early June on basic kayak techniques. Still, I'd love to flounder around in it sooner, assuming I can figure out how to get in and out of it. Thanks in advance. |
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#3
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Into and out of the Kayak
lol....same thing happened to me. It was a snug fit but I could do it at
the test paddle the shop put on. Rented it and at home (it was a flat bottom river yak) I could get in. I got to the water and thought "How the heck am I gonna do this?" Plan on getting a little wet. A had a shallow sandy area that I could launch from so it wasn't too bad. One of benefit of a sit on top. But that's a whole other discussion. -- Matt Langenfeld JEM Watercraft http://jem.e-boat.net/ On 30 Apr 2004 19:22:03 -0700, (jeffh129) wrote: Ok, here is probably the dumbest "newbie" question of the year. Yesterday I purchased a new Sundance 120 after three test paddles. However each time I test paddled the yak, there was an employee there to help me enter and exit the yak next to a pier. So....now I have it home and am anxious to take it out soon. I assume I won't be doing the pier entry and exit as I will be alone. How do I get in and out of the darn thing? Do I float it out into a foot or so of water? Then what? Same thing on exiting. How do I actually get in and out? ( I TOLD you this would be dumb) Trust me, I am signed up for a three hour lesson in early June on basic kayak techniques. Still, I'd love to flounder around in it sooner, assuming I can figure out how to get in and out of it. Thanks in advance. |
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#4
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Into and out of the Kayak
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#5
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Into and out of the Kayak (long)
"jeffh129" wrote in message om... Ok, here is probably the dumbest "newbie" question of the year. Yesterday I purchased a new Sundance 120 after three test paddles. However each time I test paddled the yak, there was an employee there to help me enter and exit the yak next to a pier. So....now I have it home and am anxious to take it out soon. I assume I won't be doing the pier entry and exit as I will be alone. How do I get in and out of the darn thing? Do I float it out into a foot or so of water? Then what? Same thing on exiting. How do I actually get in and out? ( I TOLD you this would be dumb) ....stuff deleted Getting in and out quickly is important. I will take minor issue with another post on the subject below, but there are some things that need to be addressed here. The first are the prevailing conditions. Surf, wind, waves, current, and soup (white foamy water that is left after waves break further out) all add to the challenge. For most conditions, the following procedures can be applied with only minor modifications. Put the bow of the boat into the water with the rear still on shore. 1) Straddle the rear of the boat and sit on the back deck 2) Place your paddle behind you so that it lays on the back deck and extends to the side of the boat you prefer to lean toward (for me, I have to enter right leg first due to knee injuries, so I lean on that side). The paddle will form an outrigger for the boat with one blade essentially attached to the boat by your weight, the other braced against the ground. This is a stable and strong position and it works even if you are in a semi-floating condition. 3) Lean on the paddle to choice side and insert legs, one at a time 4) Attach spray skirt 5) Shift paddle to position across the cockpit (or to paddling position) 6) Lean forward and thrust your hips forward and torso back (strongly) to move boat out into deeper water until it floats In some conditions, however, this isn't very easy. Dumping surf (narrow surf zones on steep beaches where the waves build up and crash in just a few feet), for example, is highly unforgiving. If you cannot find a better entry point and must cope with the surf, you will need to put more of the boat on land, perhaps all of it. It can be very tiring getting launched using hip thrusts alone and you may wish to put hands down on the ground and push up with the hip thrusts. There is more to exiting dumping surf, but I think we can safely assume you aren't yet ready for that. In calmer conditions, you can use the procedure the other poster described below, but with the following caveats: You do not need to be parallel to the shore. In fact, I strongly recommend against it unless there is a steep dropoff and no surf. Starting from shore breached to the surf is not going to work very well. You may have to use this method in some lakes and rivers, but in surf, you are better off anchored to shore. Note also that without the spray skirt attached, it will be difficult to impossible to do this quickly enough to avoid flooding by surf. In soup, there will be times where you can also do this, but I still believe it is safer to be pointing in the direction you intend to go. Conditions will be the determining factor as to how you enter. See my story below the recommendation of the other poster. Rick From other poster... Here a better way. Put the kayak in the water parallel to shore so that it is just floating. Stand next to the boat on shore facing toward the bow. Take your paddle and put it behind you perpendicular to the kayak. Lay the paddleshaft on the boat so that the shaft is just behind the cockpit rim with the water side paddle blade just beyond the waterside edge of the kayak. Most of the paddle will be towards shore. Turn the shore side paddle blade so that it is facing up. Reach down with your water side hand and grasp the paddleshaft and cockpit rim such that your fingers are in the cockpit and your thumb wrapped around the paddle shaft. As you squat down put your other hand on the paddle shaft midway between the kayak and the shore side blade. Now, keeping slightly more weight towards shore you can sit down next to your water side hand at the rear of the cockpit. Keeping your weight shifted slightly toward shore swing your water side leg into the boat then your other leg (don't take your hands of the paddle yet). As long as you're leaning slightly toward shore and you've got your hands on the paddle in the positions indicated you've got an outrigger that will keep you from capsizing towards shore and since you're leaning towards shore you won't capsize the other direction. With practice you'll be able to do this fairly quickly with getting your feet wet. My Story: I once, for example, had to exit the surf zone backward. This was not quite what I planned, but it worked. We were on a beach where a large rock (Pacific Grove) created a sheltered beach area on a day with 6-8 foot surf conditions. Normally, I would have launched at another location, but this beach was protected and allowed us to get into deep water behind the rock and enter the surf zone at a 45 degree angle. A slight right rudder at the point where you exited the shelter of the rock would put you bow on to the next steep swells, just beyond the breaking point. Not very challenging, just requiring a bit of awareness. I launched my buddy, used the paddle to brace myself into the boat, attached the spray skirt, and a huge wave, a good 4 feet taller than any of the previous ones, enveloped the rock as I did. Water cascaded down the rock, flooded the beach, and a huge current swept along the shore, grabbing the tail of my boat and spinning it. The bow caught shallow water and sand, so the boat spun around in a complete 180. Now, I was now nose to the beach with no view of the water. "Humm," the brain says, "this isn't good." I don't know about others, but my brain runs to the sarcastic and answered itself with, "duh, sherlock, now what you gonna do?" Since I was launched, buttoned up, and had no idea what the next wave would be like, I wanted to get out of there quickly. My bow was still on shore, so I had to start backward, and do a 180 in the surf zone in order to get my bow pointed in the right direction. Nope, not for me. I paddled backward toward the large rock, hit the deep water at the base, used a port (left) low brace in time to catch the next wave on my stern, and continued out into deep water, backward. I was now into the swell and able to turn around. Max, who was wondering what happened when the big wave hit asked me why I came out backward. I just said, "I read you can do this and I wanted to practice it." He refused to believe me, for some reason, and I had to explain the whole story. The rest of the day was spent chasing down grey whales on their annual migration south, with minimal luck. It wasn't until we quit and returned to shore that the whales came close, really close. One approached shore at the point next to the rock where I'd had to rudder backward into the surf, not more than 30 feet away. Why, I can't comprehend, but it was something to see. |
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#6
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Into and out of the Kayak (long)
On 1-May-2004, "Rick" wrote:
For most conditions, the following procedures can be applied with only minor modifications. Put the bow of the boat into the water with the rear still on shore. 1) Straddle the rear of the boat and sit on the back deck After years of paddling, I've come to the conclusion that this paddle bracing technique is a waste of time and leads to damage to the paddle with no gain. If you've got a keyhole cockpit and no particular leg problems, just straddle the kayak, drop your butt in and then lift your legs in - cowboy entry. Unlike John, I consider _this_ to be the better way. I have an ocean cockpit, so I can't do this. I use the paddle to brace, but it isn't touching the shore or bottom - it's floating just below the surface. I use it to dampen the rolling of the kayak and use balance to get in. This, BTW, is based on the way the Inuit in Greenland enter their kayaks - no paddle damage. With practice, you can do this to reenter the kayak in deep, calm water. Mike |
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#7
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Into and out of the Kayak (long)
Mike,
Considering that I am presenting to a novice, I stand by what I wrote. After experience, I learned that I could enter the kayak just fine without the brace, though in rough conditions, I still use it. I've come back to it more as the knee is deteriorating more rapidly than the rest of my body (sigh) and balance is thrown off when you have to compensate for such things. If you can find a rock or structure onto which to place the paddle, the risk of damage to the paddle is lower. The higher position is quite a bit more stable and even a few inches can make a lot of difference. I have, I imagine, a tough old paddle. I purchased it with my original sea lion about 12 years ago. Despite the abuses it's taken, I'm not certain how or when it will break, but it's held up this long. It probably weighs too much, it definitely has too much blade surface, but it works and I'm cheap and don't spend money until I have to. Not a bad $150, come to think of it, though. Rick "Michael Daly" wrote in message ... On 1-May-2004, "Rick" wrote: For most conditions, the following procedures can be applied with only minor modifications. Put the bow of the boat into the water with the rear still on shore. 1) Straddle the rear of the boat and sit on the back deck After years of paddling, I've come to the conclusion that this paddle bracing technique is a waste of time and leads to damage to the paddle with no gain. If you've got a keyhole cockpit and no particular leg problems, just straddle the kayak, drop your butt in and then lift your legs in - cowboy entry. Unlike John, I consider _this_ to be the better way. I have an ocean cockpit, so I can't do this. I use the paddle to brace, but it isn't touching the shore or bottom - it's floating just below the surface. I use it to dampen the rolling of the kayak and use balance to get in. This, BTW, is based on the way the Inuit in Greenland enter their kayaks - no paddle damage. With practice, you can do this to reenter the kayak in deep, calm water. Mike |
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#8
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Into and out of the Kayak (long)
On 1-May-2004, "Rick" wrote:
Considering that I am presenting to a novice, I stand by what I wrote. Why complicate things for a novice? I've seen beginners screw up a paddle brace entry. If you just sit in the kayak, you're as stable as it gets. If you sit on the back deck, you _need_ the paddle because you're unstable. The only time the cowboy entry fails is when the water is too deep to stand in. So you have to learn the paddle brace entry anyway. But it should be used as required. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Mike |
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#9
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Into and out of the Kayak
like the other fellow said, to get in dry, put the kayak floating parallel
to the shore and step in which should ground the kayak in hsallow water. Once you're in wiggle the boat to get it floating again. I haven't used the paddle as a prop on a kayak, just crouched down and grabbed the sides of the cockpit, but I do use the paddle in a very small home made boat. If the water is too deep to ground the kayak when you step in the paddle prop would be the way to do. to get out I paddle the kayak in parallel to the shore leaning away from the shore a bit until it grounds, then lean toward shore to ground it solidly and step out if I can, being stiff and sore after sitting on my butt for so long. another technique people use to get in which isn't good for the kayak is to sit in it on shore and work it into the water by pushing down on the ground with your hands while sliding the kayak forward, called the "gorilla walk" I've tried walking the kayak out to knee deep water but that just makes it harder to get in. The only time I've tipped over getting in was in knee deep water. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned |
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#10
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Into and out of the Kayak (long)
"Rick" wrote in
ink.net: "jeffh129" wrote in message om... Ok, here is probably the dumbest "newbie" question of the year. Yesterday I purchased a new Sundance 120 after three test paddles. However each time I test paddled the yak, there was an employee there to help me enter and exit the yak next to a pier. So....now I have it home and am anxious to take it out soon. I assume I won't be doing the pier entry and exit as I will be alone. How do I get in and out of the darn thing? Do I float it out into a foot or so of water? Then what? Same thing on exiting. How do I actually get in and out? ( I TOLD you this would be dumb) ...stuff deleted Getting in and out quickly is important. I will take minor issue with another post on the subject below, but there are some things that need to be addressed here. The first are the prevailing conditions. Surf, wind, waves, current, and soup (white foamy water that is left after waves break further out) all add to the challenge. For most conditions, the following procedures can be applied with only minor modifications. [snip] In calmer conditions, you can use the procedure the other poster described below, but with the following caveats: You do not need to be parallel to the shore. In fact, I strongly recommend against it unless there is a steep dropoff and no surf. Starting from shore breached to the surf is not going to work very well. You may have to use this method in some lakes and rivers, but in surf, you are better off anchored to shore. Since it was my article you were objecting to I'll respond. When I wrote the suggested entry/exit procedure I didn't even consider the possibility that he would be attempting it in anything but calm conditions. First, the original poster indicated that he had just bought a Perception Sundance. The Sundance is a 12' long, 29" wide recreational kayak, not the kind of boat that someone should be paddling in the surf with breaking waves. Secondly, the original author indicated that he had only been in a kayak a couple of times with help from someone else to enter/exit the boat. He even wrote that he would be taking his first lesson in a few weeks and just wanted to play around in his new boat a little bit before taking the lesson. Someone with no experience in a kayak really doesn't need to know methods for entering/exiting a kayak in surf conditions because he has no business going out into that kinds of conditions, especially alone. Finally, the original poster specifically mentioned being able to enter/exit the boat with out getting wet, which is why I suggested putting the kayak parallel to shore. Placing the kayak perpendicular to shore requires wading out 6-10' from shore so that he could straddle the boat (I hope he's fairly limber to be straddling a 29" wide rec boat). |
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