I have concluded that I am at odds with most or, at the very least, much of what is put forth as sea paddling's best practices, and I'm ok with that now. When I say "put forth" I mean the answers provided by instructors when I ask questions, what is published by notables in the various web and print venues, and the actions and non-actions I witness on and off the water.
I just subscribed to the electronic edition of Ocean Paddler magazine and was reading an article about a rescue technique in which it was stated that the swimmer should go to the bow of their boat and adopt the HELP position (HELP stands for Heat Escape Lessening Position). The other day I was out and mentioned this to a couple of instructors I was paddling with and mentioned, if we got into some decent conditions, I'd like to try this HELP on the bow thing. At least one of them said they advocate sending the swimmer to the bow. It might have been more than one I don't recall since my brain had sort of crawled into a shell of self doubt.
See, I'm not a go-to-the-bow kinda guy. I'm a close-to-the-cockpit kinda guy and I'm pretty damned adamant about it. I have several reasons for being that way, but there are two that stand out. The first reason is that it's what my regular (regular as in usual, not necessarily normal) coaches taught me. I'm not usually one to slavishly follow the teachings of much of anyone but my coaches are pretty spiffy and, having no evidence to the contrary, accepting their opinion didn't seem like a bad thing. The second reason is that, despite the guidance of my spiffy coaches, I have gone to the bow of boats under instruction from rescuers (and instructors) who were, evidently, part of the go-to-the-bow crew. While there at the bow I have twice been smacked on the head. Hard. I saw stars once, but that was a boat loaded with supplies for 5 days so it was heavy.
5 days is a great trip length by the way. It's long enough to actually feel like you've gotten away, and short enough that you have room for plenty of beer and wine.
Anyway, I was fine, I had a helmet on. I don't know enough about head trauma to speculate what might have happened if I hadn't but I'm totally comfortable saying it would have seriously sucked. These events happened in reasonable conditions, tide rips running from 4-5kts and standing waves from 1.5-3ft. I can't tell you how many times I've been at the bow during a rescue. More than 20 and less than 50 for sure. So most of the time being at the bow has not been a problem.
But here's the thing, and the realization I came to after coming out of my shell of self doubt. "Most of the time" is just not good enough. At least it isn't for me. Most of the time I don't get smacked on the head has to be damning with faint praise, hasn't it? Most of the time I don't need a chart. Most of them time I don't need a compass. Most of the time nobody gets hurt. Most of the time nobody gets scared enough to never get on the water again. Most of the time I don't swim. Most of the time I don't need my radio, tow belt, spare paddle, food, water, dry clothes, to read the forecast, to know the tides and currents...
Within the bounds of understanding I want all the time. And that means I'm going to wear my tow belt on lakes. And keep a compass in my life jacket. Bring a stocked first aid kit with me on every outing. And stay away from the pointy ends of boats during rescues, even if it's in a pool and to teach that to everyone who will listen. If someone tells me they're not bringing a chart onto the ocean, or they haven't checked conditions before a trip, or tells me I'm being silly for packing my dry clothes bag because we're just going over there, I know that I can add "because most of the time nothing happens" to their sentence.
I have no delusions that, in fact, all of the time things will work out no matter what I do. All the time is a goal, and a desirable one at that. At least I think so. But I'm entirely comfortable now in my belief that most of the time "most of the time" is not enough.
