[CKF Info] 5/4/2008 Lessons Learned In The Pond Practice Today

[Mark Sanders]

Jeff,

Sure that works in the best of circumstances, but in our little scenario on
Sunday we had one guy towing one guy pumping and one guy stabilizing his
boat--mostly to get him out of harms way quicker. If your paddling in calm
or safe area and go over, you'll probably do fine with the paddle float
stabilizing you. Even with an electric pump it would help till the pump got
out enough water. But if you go over around rocks and waves, they may not
wait for you to be ready before they send in round two. Practice a PF rescue
and boat pumping session and then envision being at Abalone Point with waves
crashing and rocks around you. You'll probably realize time is not on your
side.

And since you are new and I haven't ranted about my second pet safety peeve
for a while, I'll do so now! I carry an inflatable paddlefloat, wouldn't
leave home without it. But back in the day when I wasn't such an amazing
roller, I'd never use it for a rescue. I would use the foam float that I
made from a small kick board.

http://www.sandmarks.net/paddlefloat.html

Hardly any time to deploy, no giant sack to fill with water and leaves your
paddle freer to be used for what it was meant to be, a paddle.

My safety strategy for paddling alone was an electric pump and paddle float
reentry roll using my easy to use board. The paddle float reentry roll is
easy peezy, but leaves you with more water in your boat, but that wasn't a
big deal with my pump.

Hope to see you on the water to practice some wet stuff. Maybe we can do a
Saturday practice soon.

Mark Sanders



-----Original Message-----


Couldn't you use a paddle float as an outrigger to stabilize you while
you pump out the water?  I think the electric pump is a great idea, but
it adds another point of failure too IMNO (In My Newbie Opinion).

Regards,
-Jeff