Paddle Safety

Wear your PFD. By law, every boat needs to have a U.S. Coast Guard–approved life jacket (PFD) for each person on board, and that includes kayaks, canoes, and SUPs. The life jacket needs to fit the person using it. While adults aren’t always required by law to wear a PFD, children age 12 and under must wear one at all times on the water. That part isn’t optional. Even when it’s not required, the U.S. Coast Guard strongly encourages everyone to wear a PFD anytime they’re on a boat or paddlecraft. At FOAK, we take that advice seriously. Anyone paddling with a FOAK group, whether it’s a pop-up paddle or a planned event like 10 Days, 10 Waters, is required to wear a PFD the entire time. Life jackets must be worn the way they’re meant to be worn: buckled, zipped, and fully secured. Always. No exceptions. Our goal is simple: everyone comes home safe, with good stories and no hard-earned lessons.

 
Dress to get dunked. Coastal waters and air temperatures are often cool to cold and we’re almost always cooler on the water. In an immersion event, we’re looking at three immediate dangers: the gasp reflex, cold water shock, and hypothermia. The gasp reflex is the reptile brain unhelpfully responding by inhaling in surprise. Breathing in cold water creates thrashing and panicking. The best things anyone can do prior to a dunking situation are to WEAR YOUR PFD and PRACTICE RESCUES.

Hypothermia happens when someone gets too cold for too long. Early hypothermia symptoms include clumsiness and becoming unreasonable so arguing with someone who’s hypothermic to “turn around or put on another layer for goodness sake” is a bummer. Also, people can become unresponsive or die from hypothermia and that’s terrible. We recommend wearing quick-drying, non-cotton layers (cotton retains water). We also recommend wearing wetsuits or drysuits for cold water/cold weather protection.

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​Safety Signals. Paddle safety signals are NOT universal. With FOAK, we follow these rules:

• PADDLE HELD HORIZONTALLY OVERHEAD. Stop, hold your position.

• POINTING WITH PADDLE: Go that direction.

• POINTING WITH HAND: Look out for this hazard, or look at that cool bird!

• PADDLE HELD STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN: Come to me. (There might be snacks!)

• WHISTLE ONCE: Look at me. WHISTLE TWICE: Come to me. WHISTLE THRICE: Help me.

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Check Conditions first. On the coast, conditions include wind, weather, tide, current, and water flow.

• Wind. On the coast, the prevailing winds change direction seasonally. In the winter, winds are generally LESS strong (unless there’s a storm brewing) and warmer than in the summer. In Summer, we can usually count on significant, cool winds (over 10 mph) popping up between noon and 1:00 pm. Winds over 10 mph create whitecaps. Whether whitecaps mean “whee” or “whoa” depends on your skill level.

• Weather. Weather conditions on the coast can change rapidly. We recommend checking multiple forecasts specifically targeted to your paddle location. (Windy, Willy Weather, and the Weather Channel are free apps.) Wind speeds and temps can vary significantly within a 10 mile radius, so having backup plans can be helpful! Keeping a rain jacket tucked into a dry bag with towel and change of clothes (a “rescue bag” is often a good idea.

• Tides. Much of our coastal paddling is tidally-influenced. This can mean getting a free ride up or downriver (whee!), or having to slog your way through mud (darn!) Conversations about tides can get very technical, very fast. Here’s a YouTube video that that’ll probably tell you more than you want to know: tinyurl.com/PaddleWithTheCurrent. Very generally speaking, for a round-trip paddle, look to put-in and take out within a window of two hours before and after the high tide of your paddle location and look to paddle with the tide direction each way. Look for tide info on free apps Willy Weather or Windy. Savvy Navvy is really cool paid app for this info. 

• Currents. For the Central Oregon coast, tides (above) and water flows (below) are usually far more significant than river currents, however, currents can make their presence felt especially when rivers/streams run into or out of lakes. Generally speaking, the closer you are to the ocean, the more that tide overrides (or changes the direction of!) the current. Check local information and keep your eyes on the water! 

• Water flow. Seasonal changes in waterflow can make a big difference to your paddling experience on the coast. Depending on the waterbody, you can find your boat dragging through gravel in late Summer or flying in directions you do (or don’t) want to go during Spring runoff. Water gauge information can be found at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/state/Oregon/. You can check to see historical water flow to determine if the water looks too crunchy or too big to manage safely.

Float plans. Tell someone who is not on your trip where you are going and when you plan to be back on the road, off the water, or back home. Ideally, that someone knows where your car is parked and can access a spare key if needed.

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Communication. Everyone in your group should know the put-in and take-out locations, estimated paddle time, destination, wind, weather, tide, current conditions, and permit/parking fees before you go. If you carry an epi-pen for allergic response, please let someone know where that’s located in your boat. If you start feeling sick, tired, hurt, cold, hungry, thirsty, like you need to pee, etc. please let your paddle group know. We’ll be happy to take of you as best we can. DO NOT TAKE OFF BY YOURSELF. If you want or need to turn back early, someone will paddle back with you. Please accept this support graciously.

Gear. The Coast Guard (again, love them!) requires kayakers to have the following gear: PFD, whistle, and white light for paddling in low light conditions. We are also required to carry a copy of our Aquatic Invasive Species permit. (I keep a picture of mine on my phone.) We recommend carrying: water, sunglasses, sunscreen (as needed) a hat, a snack, and a drybag containing your keys and wallet. We highly recommend having some kind of tether for your phone/camera attached to your PFD.

Finally. Have fun. Be safe. Take care of each other!​​