Choosing a Paddling Partner

June-July 2006

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Aileen Stalker

Meaghan Hennessy photo. www.virgamedia.com.

Timing, weather, gear, skills—all are important to the success of any paddling trip. But don’t minimize the most important factor of all—selecting an appropriate paddling partner. Given sudden extreme water conditions, an unexpected capsize or an accident on the beach, your paddling partner may be the person who has to save your life.

So let’s consider what makes a reliable, enjoyable paddling partner—one who remains your friend long after the trip and who you gladly include in plans for future adventures.

To begin with, there are a number of safety and equipment issues associated with your potential partner:

• Personal safety is the biggest consideration for any trip, even for a short, urban trip. Think about whether your potential partner owns or can help obtain the correct charts, current and tide tables, and is able to interpret them. While everyone needs to develop these skills, if you’re directionally challenged, make sure your paddling partner is not.

• A good paddling partner is someone who is responsive to your needs. If you’re an inexperienced paddler, heavy seas, high winds or turbulence could be terrifying. It’s important that your paddling partner respects your anxieties. • Does one of you own or will you rent a VHF for longer trips to listen to weather reports? Does your partner even know what VHF means?

• Even for a day trip, you are required to have an approved PFD, spare paddle, pump,whistle, buoyant heaving line, and a good fl ashlight if paddling after dark. Does your potential partner have all these bits and pieces?

• Beware of potential partners who are so in love with blue jeans that they never part from them. Check if the words layering and waterproof have any meaning in their lives. Have you ever seen them actually wear proper outdoor clothing?

• Paddling is no time for bravado and macho behaviors. Wearing a PFD is not only mandatory, it’s crucial if you capsize. Check your potential partner’s resistance factor to this essential safety precaution, and while you’re at it, check out swimming skills, knowledge of CPR and basic fi rst aid. And who is bringing the fi rst aid kit?

• Off for just a few hours? Who is going to develop the fl oat plan? “For an afternoon paddle?!” might be the incredulous response. Well yes, either you or your partner needs to at least let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back. Rejecting this can foreshadow problems for more complex decisions and safety issues in the future.
  Then there are the more ‘personal’ aspects of paddling partner selection. These are discovered by experience during the fi rst trip together when you realize, too late, that the amusing/unique/charming/off-beat/intense/Type-A/controlling characteristics of the person you saw on land are exaggerated or increased on a trip—even just a day trip. This can result in awkward moments as you later try to imply that you plan to give up paddling entirely, just so you will never have to go on a trip with that partner again.

• Does your potential partner have a sense of humor— about themselves and others, and about life in general? One of my partners gamely dove into 12 feet of freezing water to retrieve the part from my kayak wheels I inadvertently dropped from the dock. He could have been furious but, hey, we had to catch the ferry and he had his diving ticket. On any trip there’s a lot to laugh about and often at least some stuff to get mad about—better to laugh.

• Can your paddling partner listen and tell stories? Can you learn things from him/her? Communing with nature is one of the joys of paddling—the silence that allows you to hear a loon’s cry, identify the squeal of a seal, and peacefully watch the sun set. But sharing stories, natural history or the geography of the area is also fun and adds to the memories of your trip.

• Andrew Nolan photo.

  Who is the best packer? Not a pack rat, but someone capable of packing multiple drybags into small spaces. If one of you has good spatial awareness, kayaks do hold an amazing amount. A willingness to carry all those bags up the beach for every camp without whining or commenting is also important, especially if most of the contents were agreed upon together… right?

• Strong also helps, but remember that it’s not fair for one person to have to carry everything all the time, even if it means multiple trips for the less strong person.

• Can your partner hike? When exploring remote beaches or tangled trails, walking with company can help to keep the wild things away. Ensure that your partner is not one of the wild things.

• Does your partner paddle at the same pace as you or is one of you going to have to go full speed all the time to keep up? This is not just a gender issue—there are lots of strong female paddlers who need to think about how fast and how long their male partners want to paddle.

• How encouraging is your partner—especially when one of you is tired? A useful skill is to be able to reshape the truth into comments such as “The camp is just around a couple of more points” or “I can see a patch of blue behind those gray clouds,” etc. even if the result is just to laugh and respond, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard that one before!”

• Does your potential partner know how to cook? When you’re both paddling, there is an equality that’s different from when one person does all the driving on a road trip and the other all the cooking. Since camp stove cooking takes little skill, anyone can make a good meal. Cooking also includes sharing the effort of making or buying the sandwiches for day trips—after all, that’s what delis are for.

• How much does your partner drink? Excessive drinking and watersports obviously don’t mix, but also on a long, remote trip, once that wine supply is gone, it’s gone. The person who fi nishes off two bottles of wine at a dinner party may feel it’s his/her right to do that around the campfi re. Check it out. On the other hand you want someone who likes their beer or wine well enough to properly secure the refreshments cooling in the intertidal zone. Otherwise you may observe, as I did, an entire paddling group staring in horror as they realized their unanchored beer had fl oated away with a strong current.

• Who’s in charge? Does the person you plan to spend time with always have to be ‘right’, the leader, the one in control? There should be opportunities for everyone to lead on any trip, and having a heavy-handed partner who always has to be in control can become oppressive. This will become especially apparent if you are in a double kayak where one of you could be subject to constant corrections and comments on your paddling technique, your strength and—eventually as the partnership deteriorates—the most miniscule of events or decisions.

• Perhaps a pivotal consideration is this: does the person you’re thinking of paddling with ever say thanks? Thanks for all the work you did, thanks for reminding me, thanks for bringing that, thanks for your company, your good humor, for being you? That word alone tells a great deal about any person’s ability to engage in an equal and respectful relationship in or out of a kayak.
  With a well selected paddling partner, your relationship may develop into a lifelong friendship of support and shared adventure.

© Aileen Stalker is co-author with her son Andrew Nolan (who she says is a great paddling partner) of their book Paddling Through History: Sea Kayak Vancouver and Victoria.