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unplanned swim at Garry Point

I wonder why he couldn't get back on - as they are almost like a raft . . . maybe the seat was an obstacle to getting around:

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anyway, hope he's cozy, warm and a little more prepared now.
 
kayakwriter said:
I've paddled in that area and with an ebb tide and the river outflow, it's sometimes impossible to make headway to shore.
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Back when I was young and stupid, a buddy and I took his zodiac out around that area. We ran out of gas and had to paddle (we had one oar) back to shore; that alone was a lesson in currents for me! And also to check how much gas you have before venturing out. :p

I’m glad this SOT paddler‘s story ended well. A lesson in the importance of immersion gear at least.
 
Sit on tops are easier to get back on than a sea kayak, but not necessarily easy. Many SOT paddlers never even try to do it in controlled situations to make sure they know how to do it, let alone practice it.

Stereotyping here, but it does seem that kayak fisherman often fall in this category.
 
What I see when watch people who haven’t practices is they swim up to the side of their craft and try to pull themselves up. It usually results in tipping the boat on its side. In other words, there is no swimming/kicking with your legs to get on top of the water (instead of hang down by the boat) to sort of pull the boat under you or flop on the back deck. So even if the boat is wide, just pushing down on the edge usually isn’t going to get the job done.
 
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cougarmeat said:
In other words, there is no swimming/kicking with your legs to get on top of the water (instead of hang down by the boat) to sort of pull the boat under you or flop on the back deck.
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It's not that easy to get legs kicking wearing rainpants (and boots?). Even those (stupid) 'overboot' lower leg 'bags' on drysuits can make kicking difficult. Adding the inertia of a few kg of water to each leg is not helpful, especially when you may have tired or cramped legs already.

It's definitely a problem. All the pool sessions I did wearing neoprene pants and booties didn't prepare me for doing the same thing in the ocean with more bulky footwear.
 
jefffski said:
This: beautiful and absolutely idiotic. Heuristics strikes again.
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It's all about making YouTube clickbait for your sponsors and hipster fans......
"It's 10 km each way by water. The ONLY WAY we could get there was on inflatable paddleboards....."
Then: "It was getting really windy and cold but we decided to just go climbing and worry later about getting back. By the time we started to paddle back it was already getting dark."

BTW, also illustrates the real nature of paddleboards: "10 km so it took OVER THREE HOURS each way."
 
I've seen people really booting along on paddleboards. However, they weren't weighed down with climbing gear. To me, the THREE HOURS has more to do with these guys being primarily climbers and not paddlers.

I would humbly disagree with the "idiotic" as a blanket statement. The presentation was the typical breathless hyperbole (these guys are not in Alex Honnold territory), but the idea of finding new challenges is not that far off in spirit from what the Tsunami Rangers would do.
 
AlphaEcho said:
the idea of finding new challenges is not that far off in spirit from what the Tsunami Rangers would do.
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But the Tsunami Rangers don't leave the ocean with holes drilled in it and gear hanging out....just sayin'.... :)
A bit of 'back to the 70s and 80s' climbing ethics would be nice....
 
Wow, they're bolting??? That definitely counts as idiotic. "Wars" were fought in the 80's on the bluffs in Squamish over that. This isn't the dark ages anymore. Jeez.
 
AlphaEcho said:
Wow, they're bolting??? That definitely counts as idiotic. "Wars" were fought in the 80's on the bluffs in Squamish over that. This isn't the dark ages anymore. Jeez.
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Yup: You can see in the video at 7:20 ...drilling next to a crack(?) and below another. 'Sport climbing mode' = drill with battery hammer drill and set bolts (on aid or rappel) then festoon the route with pre-placed 'quickdraws' so the YouTuber doesn't have to carry the 'extra weight' of carabiners and slings or go to the bother of clipping in to a bolt hanger. Voila! 5.14 .....just like the climbing gym.
 
My bad. I didn't watch the video through. More than enough of that 'instagram extreme hero' culture going around.

I take back my "it's not blanket idiocy" statement. @jefffski was right.

Barbarians.
 
It's particularly unnecessary to set a lot of bolts high on a steeply overhanging route above water...I guess they do it to save the trouble of re-climbing the route if they fall off ??
 
So is there a climbing aesthetic where female anchor locations are drilled in so that any bolts or attachments can be removed at the end of the climbing event. That way 'anchor point locations' would not be so obtrusive and one would have the approach options before the climb.
Too much fairy tale? aesthetics ruined anyway?

So to the recent topic with respect to paddling:
I know quite a few interesting sites that because of approach and tidal height changes have quite difficult access from a kayak - they can be crawled up to out of a skiff butting on to them but from a kayak would be quite a bit more difficult - probably would involve standing up but with no horizontal support. My thoughts were to have an anchor bolt or hook drilled in the rock about 1m or so above the hi water line that one could throw a loop over and now be able to shimmy/walk/crawl up and out of the kayak [say about 45deg angle plus/minus - but not far or too out of the question with the assist]. Anyway, a thought.

And climbing onto that sitontop sure seems insignificant - with respect to climbing whether anchor points or no.
 
mick_allen said:
So is there a climbing aesthetic where female anchor locations are drilled in so that any bolts or attachments can be removed at the end of the climbing event. That way 'anchor point locations' would not be so obtrusive and one would have the approach options before the climb.
Too much fairy tale? aesthetics ruined anyway?
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Mick-
I was never much of a climber and haven't done it for (many) years, but 'in the olden days' if a bolt (or piton) was to be placed, it was considered good form to make a decent job of it so others could rely on it. Bolts weren't removable, but the bolt hangers could be removed by taking off the nut, leaving just the threaded end of the bolt sticking out. (After all, the hangers cost $1 each!!!!) :)
Pulling or choppng a bolt was a form of defacement and was the subject of a lot of controversy, as AE mentioned.
I think they are long gone now, but I DO recall a series of bolts (a.k.a. 'bolt ladder') on the Grand Wall route on Squamish Chief that was just a series of threaded 'remains' of 1/4" bolts sticking out of the wall. It was on an aid section, but I never was snobby about 'bolt ladders' after that day. :)
Those bolts were all hand drilled with a hand-held drill and a hammer - there were no battery-powered hammer drills in the 60s and 70s.
mick_allen said:
So to the recent topic with respect to paddling:
..... My thoughts were to have an anchor bolt or hook drilled in the rock about 1m or so above the hi water line that one could throw a loop over and now be able to shimmy/walk/crawl up and out of the kayak [say about 45deg angle plus/minus - but not far or too out of the question with the assist]. Anyway, a thought.
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My hat is off to you! I have trouble getting out of my kayak at a dock! :)
 
My idiotic comments weren't about the climbing. I climbed for over 20 years, mostly trad, in Squamish, and I don't think they broke any unwritten ethical guidelines wrt to bolting or clipping pre-hung draws. However, Howe Sound, which they crossed from Porteau Cove, is a known afternoon producer of strong winds (Squamish, at the head of Howe Sound, means place of strong wind) and is a world class kiteboarding and windsurfing destination. In winter, the wind can be frightening. We are blessed with many forecasts, so there is no reason to be crossing (2 km, btw) in wind. On top of that, once one of the SUPs deflated, they could easily have called a water taxi, rather than getting on the water at dusk, in winter! Hence, despite their climbing prowess, these guys acted like idiots.
 
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