Valley Nordkapp in windy conditions - trimming

Yesterday was the day after the gale of 16 m/s wind from the south against the Ekenäs archipelago on the Finnish south coast. Some wind was still present and kept boaters on sheltered waters with sails down. For me it was an excellent opportunity to get familiar with the waters outside the Paddlingsfabriken renting cottage. Significant wave hight on the Baltic sea was on 5 meters yesterday. I might have had a maximum of 2 meters today and they were quickly dying out. At noon time they might have been 1.5 meters. My plan was to take some admirable photos with my Olympus waterproof pocket camera, while still not knowing what kind of wave formation I would have out there between the reefs.

Since I was going alone I chose to take the less challenging boat - the PE Valley Nordkapp. Someone else would have been happy with the boat, but to me there was not much of fun. I had none of watersplasches in the face. The ride was as dry as it can be. There was a slight tendency of the boat to turn down from the wind while paddling, and a more or less immediate fall down of the bow when I stopped paddling to take pictures. Of course the waves did their job in turning the kayak on top of the effects of the wind. Another reason could have been my spare clothes in the stern hatch. No other load was present except my own weight. It had been much wiser to load them in the front to balance the kayak for headwinds and using the skeg to make it fall down. Travelling light in the boat and especially the bow made the ride extreamly dry. I think it also made the going back home on surf less of a joy. Catching waves and surfing them was a struggle. Mostly I could sea the waves going much faster and giving almost no push. Skeg up or down did not even matter much for tracking on the surf.

Despite the unfavourable weight trimming I did get as good pictures as possible while on a paddle alone. With good paddler company and a helmet on, getting ontop of one of the slippery rocks had given even better waterspray shots. Another kayaker had also put some perspective and scale to the swelling seas.

Capsized before the age of four

Today was another milestone in my young childs life. She capsized her kayak on the paddle to the beach. Some drama appeared but not the kind I or you might have pictured.

We had prepared for a capsize to happen by visiting the public swimmingpool along the winter. I urged her to do jumps and dives on deep water while I stood by to pick her up. I urged her to blow bubbles in the water. She never really wanted to do a dive other than as a jump from the pool edge. Her favourite was to imitate watergymnastics from the neighboring pool, or dance to music. She does swim with some boyancy aid. That's it!

This tipping happended fairly much because she reached for the water with her right hand and went over. Holding tight with her left hand to the paddle she managed to momentarily go under the water. By holding on to the paddle and working herself up with her left hand, and with the PFD she kept herself with nose and mouth above the water. She screamed! She was clearly in distress. "MY COCKPIT IS TAKING IN WATER!!" I was expecting her to cough at least a little, but no. Her main concern was the water in the cockpit. I used the sponge and had it dried up soon enough, and we paddled ashore. She made the last meters on her own. No trauma.

Time for a swim/play in shallow water and then we paddled back home. She did the first 100 meters by her own, and the remaining 500 meters she wished for a tow.

For anyone reading this and considering similar exercizes with their toddler, I would strongly urge them to first develop their own control of their boat. When your toddler has capsized it is not adviceable to use many seconds to position yourself for an assist. My guess is she was less than 6 seconds in a capsized position, maybe 4. Experience with older paddlers tells me when someone is going to capsize, and I am quite often on the move already when they go. For a toddler a first traumatic capsize is likely to affect her relationship with boating for the rest of her life.

Perhaps she decided to do a capsize. All previous tours were done without the spraydeck. This was the first time using it. Or maybe it made her moves too stiff and connected to the boat deck. Have to look into that, and perhaps design a pfd that goes better together with the spraydeck.

I think we will have fun and play with some edging tomorrow.

Turning a kayak

Every almost pro (sea)kayaker knows how to efficiently turn their kayak using paddlestrokes. But what if they were put into a tandem kayak, or if they were less than 4 years old? Would they still be able to turn?

My "toddler" daughter found a new and fun skill in her. Since a couple of weeks back I felt frustration. She just would not turn the kayak or go backwards. Now - all of a sudden she went as fast backwards as she did forwards. That felt like a milestone and made me glad. On top of that she did turn the kayak. Perhaps not in a very controlled manner, and so far in one direction. But still it is a beginning that I am proud of. She also enjoyed wigging the kayak, a beginning to edgeing. What really gives her pelasure is to paddle over to the sandbeach and play with other kids in the water. Kayak handling becomes part of a childs summer play on the beach.

Ever seen a tandem kayak really turn? Another beginner couple came for a trial paddle. They were looking for an activity were leg handicap would not be in the way. The preferred choice was to use a very stable tandem. Safely on water the typical problems of coordination of two paddlers in place of one appeared. Using some sets of excersises the kayak started to move in a fairly straight line. Because of the handicap of the paddler in the cockpit in the back, operating the rudder pedals his feet was not an option. I decided to teach them the Stern-Rudder and the Bow-Rudder, and then to do them in sync so that when Bow-Rudder is used in the front right side, the Stern-Rudder is used in the back on the same side. Once the paddlers found the first feeling of that syncronised stroke the kayak turned more sharply than I've seen no tandem kayak turn before. It looked like a dram and it must have felt like a dream in comparison to the first 30 minutes. This couple got hooked on doing the turns. And when leaving for home that one teaching was on the top of their mind.

I was glad to be able to help and teach them an impressive tandem turning stroke.