Know Your Neighbours: Paddling The Restless Sea

April-May 2006

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

Most sea kayakers start out in ‘protected waters’. That’s a fluid term, but for most of us it means calm water and light winds, topped by sunshine if we are lucky. Your first paddle might have been on a small lake, a sheltered bay or even a lesson in a pool, the most protected of all waters.

Eventually though, sea kayakers tend to venture out into increasingly open waters. We find ourselves tempted by coastlines that are more exposed to what the big ocean has to offer. Many kayakers increase their exposure without even realizing it, perhaps relying on the judgment of friends or professional guides. Some are lured by good weather, making the mistake of confusing calm conditions with safe locations. If you’ve done much ocean paddling, you’ve probably learned the hard way that some of your favorite spots might seem safe when conditions are ideal, but conditions can change rapidly. If you’re paddling in a spot that isn’t really protected, rising winds and shifting tides can turn a leisurely paddle into a potentially dangerous adventure.

Your transition from protected to open water will be easier if you know a bit about sea states. Unlike the calm surface of protected water, the top of the big ocean can do an assortment of interesting and unexpected things. Sometimes the state of the sea is fun, sometimes it makes you work hard, and sometimes it’s dangerous. If you’d like to venture out of those protected nooks, you need to consider the next question.

ARE YOU SEAWORTHY?

With the explosion of the recreational kayak market, the answer is often ‘no’. Volumes have been written about what constitutes a seaworthy vessel, but for kayaks, there are two main problems. Poor fitting or non-existent sprayskirts could allow waves to swamp some kayaks. Arguably worse, some don’t have built-in floatation (is it optional on your model?), which means if you tip or get swamped, your boat could end up immovably vertical, or even sink.

After considering your gear, the next stage of seaworthiness is yourself. Specifically—how good is your judgment? Are you winging it every time you go paddling, relying on luck or vague television weather reports to keep you in manageable conditions? That might work in protected waters, but the bigger ocean has a way of punishing those who gamble on luck or television for too long.

Even the best judgment doesn’t guarantee you’ll never get into tricky conditions—that’s when you need good bracing skills. Formal lessons, expert advice and plenty of practice will help make you as seaworthy as your kayak. With good judgment, solid skills and seaworthy equipment, you’ll be able to handle a much wider variety of sea states safely.

A SEA OF SURPRISES

There is a big difference in the conditions you might face as you switch from paddling in protected waters to coasts that are more exposed. Wind, waves and current can play all sorts of tricks, and a big chunk of kayaking wisdom is about predicting what sea states you might encounter in any given area. Hordes of new paddlers venture into exposed waters on calm days, many never considering how alarming the conditions could become. Learning to interpret charts, tides and weather forecasts are essential skills, but the sea has surprises even for old salts.

Not that I’m all that old or salty, but here’s an example. I was paddling off Nanaimo with my sister and brother-in-law, who were visiting from Ottawa. They were kayaking novices but it was a sunny, flat-calm summer day on Georgia Strait. While we were on the exposed side of Newcastle Island, a set of waves appeared out of nowhere, rising rapidly to become taller than us. My brother-in-law was closest, and fortunately had the sense to spin his boat to meet them head on, though they appeared so quickly he barely had time. After watching him emerge wet but upright, I managed to surf one or two of the waves to shore. Then it went back to being dead calm.

What could cause such large, breaking waves to appear out of a calm sea? A combination of bottom topography and a distant cruise ship, maybe? Or an earthquake. A monster of the deep? Who knows? Whatever it was, you’re not likely to have that sort of thing happen on a small lake.

That’s one of the things that makes sea kayaking so interesting. Once you and your boat are suitably safe and seaworthy, be on the lookout for this month’s checklist—ten things the surface of the sea can do when it’s allowed to flex its muscles.

IS IT SAFE?

Picture yourself and a kayak on a beach in western Florida. There’s white sand between your toes and it’s hot enough to paddle in the altogether. The air is calm and the Gulf of Mexico stretches out in front of you, as warm and blue as the sky. A short way offshore is Egmont Key, a sandy looking island complete with scenic lighthouse and palm trees. What could be safer?

COMPLICATION 1

The Gulf of Mexico is often calm, ‘sheltered’ by the US and Mexico. It’s also where waves higher than ten story buildings (27m), among the largest ever measured, were recorded as Hurricane Ivan roared through in Sept. 2004. You’ll want to check the weather.

COMPLICATION 2

That scenic lighthouse is there because Egmont Key lies on the other side of a busy shipping channel. Any large vessels leaving or entering Tampa Bay, from cruise ships to phosphate tankers, will cross between you and that island. You’ll want to look both ways and be prepared for a big wake.

COMPLICATION 3

That shipping channel is also the deepest spot for many kilometers, so most of Tampa Bay’s tidal flow rushes past. You might be swept off course, and even a light breeze can stir up dangerous chop in tide races near the island. You’ll want to check the tides. As a result of these complications, the trip to Egmont is usually recommended for advanced paddlers only, despite how easy it might seem to beginners on the beach.

SEA STATES

MILD CURRENT

Moving water is one of the first things you might encounter as you venture forth from your favorite bay. Mild currents are common in the ocean, caused by a variety of conditions including tides, weather and even salinity differences. As you get farther from landmarks, you might not even notice a mild current. Still, it can mess up your plans, adding or subtracting hours to a day’s paddle, or subtly drifting you into more dangerous water.

STRONG CURRENT

Coastal topography can also create surprisingly strong currents. Narrow inlets create salty rivers that can move fast enough to easily outpace even the strongest paddlers. If you’re careless or thrill-seeking, you’ll find standing waves, vicious eddy lines and even whirlpools in the strongest currents, all of which change directions with the tides. Even if you don’t live near fjord-like inlets, many exposed beaches are notorious for powerful rip and longshore currents. You should be aware of the potential for strong currents before you venture into new paddling territory.

CHOP

We all know that wind across the water makes waves. Actively windy conditions cause short, increasingly steep waves that boaters often call chop. Choppy conditions can become dangerous for sea kayakers because the wind and waves might make it hard to get to where you want to go. Stronger winds can generate waves that are big and steep enough to test your bracing skills and the stability of your kayak.

SWELL

Exposure often means plenty of ‘fetch’, wide open water that allows distant winds to build waves into large, rolling swell. Swell takes a while to build, but lasts a long time and can travel considerable distances. Swell isn’t swell at all if you’re prone to seasickness, but apart from that it’s not especially bad unless conditions make it unusually steep (see next item). Generally though, you and your kayak will simply bob up and down like a cork, or travel up and down the watery ‘hills’ as you paddle.

SURF

Strong winds or bottom topography can force swell to steepen. Naturally, water can only get so steep before it breaks, which happens all the time as ocean swell reaches shore and becomes surf. You won’t just bob up and down in surf—it will really move you. Laterally, that is, which can be loads of fun if you’re prepared for it, or wipeout-inducing if you’re not. Not surprisingly then, you should avoid conditions that create breaking waves unless you’re prepared. This is the essence of protected water for many paddlers—spots where waves seldom, if ever, get a chance to break and/or become surf.

MUSSELING IN

From Eastern Europe’s seas come the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) which made the trip to North America’s Great Lakes in the late 1980s. Though a diminutive shell, rapidly reproducing legions of them smothered ecosystems and infrastructure in a very obvious and expensive way, pioneering invasive species legislation and funding a lot of research.

RIPS & RACES

One of the most surprising and potentially dangerous sea states is a mix of wind, chop and current. These boat-eating locales, often referred to as tide races or rips, are typically found near channels, around tips of islands or at the head of inlets. Caused by currents mixing or changing directions, they can be bumpy even on calm days but are at their worst when wind turns them into a riotous mix of steep, chaotic waves and moving water.

CLAPOTIS

We can thank the French for this term, which sounds more like an affliction than a sea state. It represents the odd, often unpredictable standing waves that form when waves reflect off a vertical surface like a cliff or seawall. Paddling next to such steep shorelines can put you into a jostling, wiggly sort of sea that might be exhilarating or alarming, depending on the height of the waves and your state of mind. Stay loose in the hips and keep your paddle in the water to maintain balance.

BOAT WAKE

For some paddlers, being on more exposed waters means exposure to waves caused by bigger boats rather than natural waves. Paddlers in busy boating areas should learn which hulls at which speeds produce what sort of waves, but generally large V type hulls that are plowing (semi-planing) through the water create the steepest, most dangerous waves. Instead of always bemoaning the rudeness of some power boaters, use their wake as an opportunity to test your boat and skills, and maybe sneak in a little surfing.

FUNKY BOAT WAKE

That familiar wake that spreads like a V behind a moving boat can do some odd things when combined with other sea conditions. Shallows might cause the waves to suddenly break, or wake from several boats might combine into confused seas. The worst I’ve seen is in narrow channels with tidal currents, where wake seems to regularly disappear and then reform into steep, dangerous curls that travel at unpredictable speeds in odd directions. In channels like that, you’ve got a range of sea states to contend with—nothing like those lazy days bobbing in protected bays.

ROCK GARDENS

We’ll finish with the spots that create the wackiest, most exhilarating seas. Rock gardens are areas on exposed coasts where numerous rocky reefs approach or reach the surface. As big swell moves through, all kinds of sea states appear and disappear. Every type of vessel afloat steers clear of this hull-crunching combination of solid rock and whirling water—except a select few kayakers with adrenaline issues.