safety gear

Accident reports are easy to write when the story ends happily, but this one didn’t and it’s with a very heavy heart that I’m writing this, with a view to learning what we can from it.

Many paddlers use Personal Locator Beacons, or tracker apps like SafeTrx on their mobile phones. But handheld VHF radios are also a great choice to consider – especially when they’re DSC-capable like the Standard Horizon HX870E.

Extreme sports and 100% safety are incompatible. When you go to sea in gale-force downwind conditions, sometimes shit will happen. And it’s then that your safety gear and your preparedness in using it become vital…

Editor: The conditions were clearly extreme: 40kt SE and 3.5m swell.  But no-one could have foreseen that a breaking wave would smash Dave Black's surfski so hard that it would disintegrate, leaving him swimming in the maelstrom...  Luckily he had his mobile phone with him and this lead ultimately to his rescue by the Simon's Town NSRI crew.  This story dates from 2012, but with the increase in the number of surfski paddlers worldwide, and the ever lighter constructions being used in surfski manufacture, this story is more relevant than ever.

As Alan remounted his surfski yet again, he realized that it was time to call for help. The wind was increasing, the tide had turned, and the beam-on waves were getting bigger and steeper. He fumbled with his VHF radio, but the cold had robbed his hands of feeling…

My speed surged as I launched down the run, spray flying, the howl and crash of the wind and waves in my ears… and then, crack! “Faaaaaark!” (or words to that effect). The footplate assembly had completely separated from the boat and in an instant, I had no steering, nothing to press my feet against at all. The boat veered off, out of control…