SheilaP said:
I borrowed this line from another forum:
VanIslePaddler said:
1 - ALWAYS paddle as a group... if you sign on to paddle somewhere with others (paid or as friends) stick together
I brought it in here to open a discussion on the topic because I am constantly curious about this very issue!
I am trying to engage with this so I can understand better, not to be critical of others. I really would love it if we could engage in a discussion that considers all levels of paddling ability.
When paddling with friends, clubs, and even guided trips this issue can be such a challenge. I respect there are different paddling ablities, styles, and certainly speeds. But why do we choose to paddle with others then leave them behind when they don't keep up, or take off to explore without taking the others along? Why Santy-Clause, why? Why not go out with one or two people who paddles at the same rate and same style?
Better yet,
why do we continue to paddle with the same people and keep leaving them behind? This really confounds me. I doubt that people change their paddling ambitions much in a season or so, therefore, I don't expect that people will be drastically different paddlers the next time I go out with them. When I was a novice paddler there were some people that paddled with me just once; I imagine they didn't feel like they had skills, goals, and/or speed in common (or maybe they just plain didn't like me :yikes: ). Either way, none of these people left me behind (much).
Yet, I see groups challenged with this regularly. I sometimes struggle with this as a leader as well. So maybe I can gather some insight and advice from WCPaddlers. :?
Shelia,
Gathering insight and advice about an issue that is perhaps already as inherently incongruent as when two paddlers attempt to move through water with safety and synergy, let alone with larger groups, is indeed a noble undertaking.
I was running sweep back in August for Don for the Victoria Kayak For A Cure. We had a fairly novice female paddler in a short rec boat and I just knew there would be a disparity. Fortunately the route wasn’t taxing and with adequate stops a lead guide on point slowing the action down at key intervals, the situation remained well under control.
Unlike above, I figure the dynamics with an intermediate to advanced trip, whether it be a club paddle or a pre-organized group of friends, are such that most of the problems that arise (and they don’t necessarily have to) are due to poor communication, poor leadership, general etiquette ignorance, unrealistic expectations, or environmental factors that weren’t accounted for. It is the measure of a group how well they cope. For an organized commercial trip, failure to cope with emergent inconsistencies is inexcusable.
Once we get past the poor optics of groups stringing out and slower paddlers getting behind (for indeed, as some have pointed out, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, smaller pods being okay, as long as stragglers are accounted for) then the issue is one of safety and addressing the concerns of the slower paddlers. Poor early experiences can leave the novice paddler frustrated and disillusioned. They often resort to even more arm muscling, getting tense and generating even more inefficiencies and slowing even more.
In the case of the rec boat paddler, I was making observations, looking for good torso rotation, checking that she didn’t have overly large paddle blades for body size (something that is even worse in a low-efficiency hull design), and that she was efficiently keeping the boat tracking true given the manoeuvrable hull-profile and the need for some preventative vigilance As it turned out another considerate paddler moved up beside her and went through the paddling 101 drill so I could continue my head counts and navigational awareness duties.
Anyone who has spent enough time on the water with other paddlers comes to realize that it is the group’s responsibility to ensure no one is left behind. And this CAN be frustration itself. My ability to maintain distance and even sometimes warmth is based on preferred cadence and stroke speed for conditions. But as Matt Broze observed in the Storm Island Rescue article in the August Sea Kayaker issue, “Paddlers in the lead may want to set a faster pace for the group. They may be more comfortable paddling at a higher speed, taking breaks to wait for the others to catch up. While this sounds okay in theory (if you stay within hailing distance), the strong paddlers are the only ones who get to rest.”
Various propositions are put forth, including setting the slowest paddler in the lead, asking the slower paddlers to turn back (with escort), letting the paddlers with excess energy tow the slower paddlers, letting the slower paddlers wake-ride, having the faster, larger paddlers run blocking to windward, having the fast paddlers run shepherding patterns amongst the group, or permitting the fast paddlers to make the destination earlier (with safety/communication provisions), or maybe just letting the leader enforce whatever disciplinary actions or attempts at détente that are called for.
There are days when even an experienced paddler can arrive at the put-in and just not have the energy or fitness levels needed that day. It is incumbent on the paddler to share these concerns before the trip gets underway. For more advanced trips where the stakes are higher, if one is being ignored it is especially important to let your companions know before attempting especially challenging transits that you are not up to expectations. Paddlers lagging behind can get exhausted and hypothermic very rapidly or even sometimes more subtlety and insidiously to the point their thinking isn’t right anymore and a critical mass has been reached. Exhaustion and hypothermia is a chicken and egg thing. I found this happens easily enough on winter group trips and especially on the crossing on the Storm Island trip where we eventually needed rescue. But the failure still remains with the group, not the individual, no matter how you rationalize things. There are always red flags. Always.
I don’t know why fast paddlers insist on their modus operandi in the context of repeated offences being noted by other paddlers and leaders where the pace of the trip had been pre-established and compliance lacking. Some will fly past the next break stop and it is annoying, with no regrouping/communication possible or easy. I can understand the frustration if the lagging paddlers didn`t do their homework or brings inadequate equipment or hull profiles and a posted trip had certain expectations, but a trip that normally falls into the 2.5 – 3.5 knot pace isn`t going to benefit from 2-knot and 5-knot paddlers. The math is simple.
Certainly if we take safely as the primary concern, then any large group (ten or more) better have a damn good plan in place as to how to keep cohesion and proximity, both latitudinal and longitudinal. With good leadership or a properly organized trip with a specific paddling plan or tacit rules of engagement everyone buys in to, dealing with fast paddlers can be easy if you place them in the sweep responsibility position(s). For less formal or organized paddles, one does take their chances it seems, though ``chance`` is relative terminology and sometimes is more annoying that unsafe. And sometimes it isn`t.
Doug Lloyd