You never think it will happen to you. . .
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Its inevitable, the more you do something that has an inherent risk the more likely you will find yourself in need of help. It finally happened to me on a beautiful northwest day out of Makah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula.
I was a student taking part in a 3 day BCU 4 Star Coastal Leadership Training. The training was Sat. thru Mon. however I left from work Friday morning and made a bee line straight fro the coast. The weather forecast was for clear skies, light NW winds, and a NW swell of 6-8’ and falling all weekend. I figured I would show up early and get to the beach to get a few hours of playing in the surf.
I arrived at Hobuck around noon and the forecast was spot on. It was a beautiful day! I went down to the water to watch the waves and scope out the beach. There were only a handful of beach walkers around and I had the waves all to myself. I felt pretty confident in my abilities as I had been in surf of this size before on many occasions, I also had on onshore wind and an incoming tide both in my favor in terms of safety and good waves! I got dressed in the usual: Kokatat Expedition Drysuit, Bunny Suit, and Ronin Pro PFD, along with my Sweet Strutter Helmet and GoPro HD Helmet Cam plus my VHF radio.
I was ready to hit the water. I launched and played in the soup and reform for a bit to get a good sense of the waves and found there to be a little more power behind them today. I should have anticipated this fact as I knew the period between crests was 12-14 seconds. I was a little conservative picking smaller waves to catch and get warmed up on, besides I was by my self and not looking to get into too much trouble yet. . . . It was once I started venturing out that I felt the real power behind the waves and after getting trashed 3 or 4 times decided that I would stay inside and ride what I could. I was able to catch a few good rides and had plenty of combat rolling experience so after 2 hours I dragged myself out of the water worn but happy. No Incident today!
I strolled up to Cape Flattery and hiked out the trail to the viewing platforms and was treated by some phenomenal views and a reminder why I love coastal kayaking so much.
I then headed back into Neah Bay to check into the Bullman Beach Inn just south of town. Side bar here, if you are staying out at Neah Bay for multiple days and don't want to camp this is an excellent place to stay. I met up with my roommate, Ray, from Canada and the rest of the group (Nick & Dan from the San Juans, Ed from Seattle and Peggy from Minnesota) and our instructors Shawna and Leon.
We met early Saturday morning to pull the class together and go over the days expectations. We headed out to Hobuck beach to find a suitable launch site. Our first stop had some larger waves so we opted as a group to continue south around the corner and launch out of a river mouth as the waves there were smaller and more manageable. Once on the beach we all started talking about underwater topography and how this was affecting the waves as they broke over the bar. The waves here were considerably smaller and cleaner than at the beach and a safer line could be picked fro getting out. Nonetheless, the incident at Netarts Bay was mentioned a few times. Leon sent out Shawna to catch and hold us beyond the breaks and we spaced our selves out to cross the bar one at a time. We all made it out across the bar with out any problems. The series was pushing 3’ maybe 4’ and timed correctly you could get through with two footers. NO incident yet. . .
We did a fun and informative Navigation and Group control drill to get us down to Anderson Pt. Along the way we used Line of Positions to verify our speed and location. We used the C.L.A.P. (Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance and Position of Maximum Usefulness) principle to lead the group.
We stopped along the way and rode the swellevator along a rock wall trying to maintain a single position and then all of sudden out of NO WHERE, Leon falls out his boat and panicked letting go of his boat and paddle!!! It must have been a rogue wave. We had to get him away from the wall and reunite him with his boat. Once together we realize that he has dislocated his shoulder. We were able to get him out of the water using the scoop method and rafted him with another paddler. We set up for a tow to the nearest beach so we could further assess his injuries. Only problem is all the nearby beaches had surf! I was sent ahead of the group to scout the beaches and find the most suitable to land on. I found a beach nestled in the corner which had the least amount of rocks and the smallest surf. I landed and signaled for the group to meet up with me. The rafted folks were towed using an inline tow and we placed a second tower off the stern to act as a drogue once we got near the beach to keep the raft from surfing into the tower. Once we safely landed on the beach Leon miraculously became healed and we enjoyed a quick lunch on the beach. NO real incident yet. . .
After lunch we launched and headed south out along the Anderson Pt to the Head where we were met with 4’ seas and 15 knots of wind. This seemed as good of place as any to exit our boats right along the rocks and perform rescues so we did. After several rescues each we started to head back north towards the cars. One of the students started to get a little green under the gills and I too was feeling the effects of the swells. I alerted Leon to this and he diverted us to a nearby rock and had us perform difficult landings to get us off the water and our minds off the up and down motion of the swells. We had to exit our boats and ride the swell up the side of the rick and then latch on and climb up the rock with our boats in hand.
We got back on the water after a short spell and some goofing off and continued our navigation and group leading exercise north back towards the cars. About half way back is when the true incident started.
It started out by my left hand cramping up. I was able to work it out and continued on. A few minutes later my right hand started to cramp and this one was not going away so I called Shawna over and told her what was going on. She very fastidiously ran down all the appropriate medical questions regarding dehydration, nutrition, and medical history. I was impressed,my self being a Paramedic, she was very thorough. So to run down my answers I had drank a half a liter of water before launching this morning and had drank 1.5 liters from my camelback since we launched plus another half liter from a water bottle at lunch. In the water I had NUUN tablets which are flavored electrolyte tabs that dissolve in water. I had a sandwich, apple and an energy bar for lunch. I have no medical problems and do not take any medications.
I did not feel excessively tired or worked but now that we had stopped both hands had cramped and the cramp was working up my forearms. I laid across Shawna’s bow as she called group over to take me in tow.
By now we had been sitting still in the swells bobbing up and down for several minutes with me starring at my hands and I was again starting to feel a little green. As luck would have it, just as everyone was gathering around I expelled what seemed like all of the water I had drank that day along with my lunch. I felt a ton better after the show. I apologized profusely as I tried and failed to miss Shawna’s boat. All of the sea sickness disappeared after I purged and I felt 10 times better.
My hands were still cramped up so we continued with a rafted tow. Shawna & Leon orchestrated a double in line tow back to the river mouth. By the time we reached the river mouth the cramps had subsided and my sea sickness was no longer an issue.
We went to break the tow down and I was handed back my paddle when both hands immediately cramped up again. Leon quickly and decisively set up a tow like the one we practiced before lunch. He placed the strongest paddler up front inline and Leon tied into our sterns to act as a drogue. Shawna took charge of the the rest of the group and held position as we crossed the bar. The wave height had been dropping all day and we were now faced with 2-3’ breakers across the bar. I was feeling uneasy being in a raft and not able to hold a paddle incase we were knocked over. I had already formulated a plan in my mind to quickly wet exit and get clear of the boats and lines if that should happen.
Ed was rafted with me and did a fantastic job of communicating with Dan who was towing us. There was a fair bit of shock loading on the lines several times as we were not always in sync with the waves. Dan had a 35’ towline and Leon had a 35’ towline and extended it another 15’. There were several times when we almost speared Dan and/or Leon was pulled into us. Dan was knocked over once in the soup as we had already crossed the bar but was able to immediately roll back up.
We made it back to cars safely and no one was injured other than my pride. I was very grateful to be paddling with such a strong and skilled set of paddlers that day. I would like to really extend a BIG thanks to Dan, Ed and Leon for you risked a lot to get me back to the beach safely and I will forever be in your debt. FYI this was my Birthday, what a day!
I was able to finish out the rest of the weekend without incident. The following week I had another paddling trip and a class I taught and both times had issues with my hands cramping by the end of the day.
I have since tried to figure out what might be causing my cramping and I have come up with a couple of possible factors.
- I had just received my suit back from Kokatat for repairs and they had replaced all of my gaskets. I had trimmed down the neck gaskets but had not bothered with the wrist gaskets as I did nothing to them in my original suit. So I trimmed the gaskets and stretched them out over night with pop bottles. I have since paddled several 14+ NM trips with no problems.
- I have stopped using NUUN tablets and gone back to what has worked for me in the past to replace electrolytes lost through sweat. I don’t know for sure but it seemed like when I threw up that none of the water I had drank that day had been absorbed.
- I know when I am fighting sea sickness I tend to sweat profusely so I was probably losing water and electrolytes faster than normal. I have since seen my Dr about getting a patch to be worn while paddling in a coastal environment.
Some good take home points learned here are:
- Paddle in a group, had I been alone I would have had to call for help as I was incapacitated.
- When trying new supplements out, do so in an area a little less risky.
- Always stretch and trim new rubber gaskets prior to using.