Knowing Your Limits

[DarkSkies]

If it seems like some of the other posts were yelling at you too much...please think again....I know you are a responsible Dad....the best parents know they can't keep their children in a plastic bubble forever.....They need to let them strike out on their own...and allow them the ability to screw up.....



Unfortunately. with the loss in fishing access...kayak demand is growing exponentially.

I'll go out on a limb and say that although it saddens me to say this. I predict someone is going to get killed in either LI or NJ on a kayak this year....there is too little regard for safety and protocol out there....the sport is exploding....and it's sad but inevitable.....



None of us wants that death, to be your son......hence the reason for some of the strong comments here........

Get yourself a kayak, go with him...let him be his own person...but hopefully you, and some others, can learn from some of the pointers I laid out here.....


If you want any other advice feel free to PM me any time....

I look forward to many more reports from you and him....and healthy times for us all this season...

[robmedina]

another thing to have with you especially if you travel off the beach or venture deep into the back bays and estuaries is a GPS. I have a small handheld version that cost maybe 80 bucks. I have a ram mount for it so I can use it like a dashboard. extra batteries and extra clothes in a dry bag. WATER- bring WATER. I always have my VHF radio on any body of water that has power boats.

The rule of thumb is that a non powered vessel always has the right of way. I always give way to all vessels- it is hard to prove your right when you are dead.

[nitestrikes]

I know you said not to criticize but at 35mph those winds are fairly unsafe to be on a kayak. Stiff enough for a small craft advisory. He is lucky he made it back ok.

[surferman]

A guy almost drowned up in the raritan bay may 4 last sunday. He was in a sit in kayak and wasn't wearing a wetsuit. Be careful out there gents!

From Facebook -
Wow what a day! No fish but did rescue my friend who flipped his kayak.

I didn't think much of the situation until he couldn't get back in his kayak and we where over 3/4 of a mile out. So he hung off the back of my trolling motor while i paddled as hard as I could for 35 minutes with the motor running also with the blades hitting legs a few times.

My other friend followed close by in case he let go and then told me about the 50 50 50 rule means he didn't have much time left. 50 degrees water for 50 minutes you have a 50% chance of living. When we beached he couldnt feel anything and he thought he tore his triceps from the hypothermia and his muscles contracting...

How cold was he? So cold he couldn't get his clothes off or use his hand's so we stripped him down and then I took off my clothes for him...

This isn't a story so I can be congratulated because I did nothing different from what anyone else would have done. This is about being safe, prepared and always ready for the worst. Always have a radio, always fish with a partner, and always wear your pfd because he would have been dead.

Also tell your wives or girlfriends to go buy you a dry suit Lol... Stay safe,a life can be lost at anytime in any situation if you aren't prepared. Thank god I had a motor."

[storminsteve]

Wow sounds crazy. He is certainly lucky to be alive. Def should have been wearing a wetsuit. Glad he is OK

[Monty]

I read that and a thread on it, was amazed that the coast guard was never contacted during the ordeal.
Way to many risks being taken by kayakers. An amazing amount, their luck will run out.

[J Barbosa]

Launching out front in fog is a definite DON'T!!! Just asking to be run over by a boat IMO.

With the price of radar coming down many boaters are buying them. The problem is kayaks don't show up well on radar. Add to this that some boaters are now running too fast in the fog due to the false sense of confidence in the radar.

An article I found from 2008:

A few seasons ago, one the large sea kayaking clubs in New England organized a series of radar tests with the Coast Guard's search and rescue station at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

It was a miserably wet day with torrential rains. The results of the radar testing on sea kayaks were equally miserable: the radar watchstanders reported they were unable to distinguish nearby kayakers from the chaff and clutter of day-to-day interference, waves and rain on their screens.

It was a sobering visit, especially for sea kayaking enthusiasts who frequent the fogbound waters of downeast Maine. Maine's remote waters often buss with the dodging, circling and busy at work lobstermen whose radar alarms are sometimes all that prevent them from colliding with others.
The same types of tests were later run again on a more formal systematic basis by the Coast Guard, local Maine lobstermen, and researchers from the Maine Sea Grant at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Their report, available as a pdf, takes time to wade through, given the report's thoroughness. In a nutshell, on open water and in fog, don't count on being detected in a sea kayak by radar no matter how much tin foil you fold up inside your hat or how fancy the reflector you attach to your aft deck.

One option, despite sometimes misinformed discussions dismissive of VHF radios, is to make a vhf calls on VHF channel 16 if you are in your sea kayak fog, at night or in limited visibility due to big swell, heavy whitecaps, darkness, heavy rain.

Of the recent tests in Maine, one adaptation of tin foil and a hat sort of worked: a tinfoil-covered sunhat. The rig gave to the radar readers a better response rate than any of the available commercial radar reflectors made for kayaks, and was certainly much less cumbersome and unwieldy, and less likely to interfered with rolling a kayak or rescuing a kayaker than an aft deck radar reflector.

[seamonkey]

^^^^ Tin foil -Amazing that it would work. Very basic and home remedy style. Thanks for sharing.