From Calamity to Control Trip Risk Assessment

April-May 1996

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

Listening to the messages of the natural order

by Doug Alderson

The proficient and aware paddler anticipates and responds to the changing conditions of wind, waves and current. As conditions change and new situations evolve, well-considered judgements and appropriate responses can help manage the risks which would have turned a placid paddle into a calamity.

In sea kayaking, wind, current and sea state can combine to create unpredictable hazards. While paddling downwind kayakers can make a comfortable course and good boat speed. However, if unaware of impending changes in the direction of the current and the influence of the shore line, paddlers can quickly find themselves in lethal tide rips around the next headland. Unskilled paddlers are in danger of finding themselves in situations which can quickly become overwhelming. Errors in judgment, a failure to anticipate problems or an inability to respond to changing conditions can amplify otherwise manageable risks to unacceptable levels.

Activities such as sky-diving or scuba diving are initially considered to have significant risk factors and beginners know that to proceed without training would be foolhardy. Through education, training and supervised practice, the sky-diver or scuba diver learns to manage the risks involved and avoid dangerous situations. For example, it is not accepted that two friends rent scuba equipment and then go out for their first dive. However, this sort of casual, unstructured beginning does occur in sea kayaking.

In contrast to the formal beginnings found in scuba diving, sea kayaking is more often initiated through curiosity and experimentation. Many kayakers who consider themselves to be experienced paddlers may be found introducing the sport to others, without having participated in any formal training. The reason for this difference is that, to the uninitiated, sea kayaking can be perceived to be a more benign activity than scuba diving.

This is not to suggest that sea kayaking become a regulated activity such as scuba diving. While breathing pressurized air at depth can never be considered 'child's play' and a high pressure air tank can never be considered a toy, paddling an open top kayak at the beach can be as whimsical as paddling a log. Circumstances are different in a touring sea kayak offshore where it must be considered to be an open water vessel. Without the shallows and shelter of the beach to moderate conditions, an open water touring kayak must be complete with systems for navigation, control, and communication. These systems require a competent skipper for safe and prudent operation.

As a recreational sport, sea kayaking includes an array of craft and a continuum of conditions from whimsical toy to open water craft and from benign beach to exposed open water. Here lies both its attraction and its hazard. Unfortunate kayaking incidents often begin with boats and people prepared for a playful paddle at the beach but later finding themselves in less than benign conditions.

Avoiding sudden transitions from control to calamity are what make sea kayaking demanding. These transitions can be dramatic and swift: from calm sea to chaotic tide rip, stable vessel to foundered hulk, warm paddler to hypo-thermic victim. A kayaker's perception and anticipation of these sorts of transitions is central to safe kayaking.

A kayaker might use a table of kayaking risk factors to assist in creating an effective paddling plan. Pilots, sailors and scuba divers use various tables and checklists to identify and manage the risks inherent in their activities. While these planning aids are by no means foolproof and must be used with prudent consideration for many other factors, they do cause us to pause and prepare for the risks we choose to accept.

Risk Checklist

Consider the set of scales (below) and determine what aggregate risk-score you think to be acceptable. An aggregate score of 6, at the lowest end, would have an aware and capable paddler practicing in a pool with a trained instructor on hand. A score of 30, at the high end, would have a first time paddler who is a poor swimmer, make a 5-mile open water crossing without knowing that a small craft warning had been issued.

Paddling plans help serve the many demands of sea kayaking. Planning a kayaking excursion includes charts for navigation and checklists for equipment. In the process of creating a paddling plan a kayaker should also spend time to discuss and record the risk factors which are likely to be encountered. Equipment checklists are used to help us manage PFD's, flares, extra paddles and a host of other equipment. A risk factors checklist can help us look ahead and avoid having to use much of that equipment.

Completing a checklist does not replace skill or experience; however, there is a balanced set of skill, experience, training, equipment and planning that will see us safely through most circumstances.

Doug Alderson lives in Sidney, BC. He can be reached by e-mail at: dalderso@cln.etc.bc.ca