I’ve been surf kayaking for many years but not very intensively. I’ve recently got a mega banshee and am surfing more often. I love the speed and manoeuvrability over a polythene boat, proper surfing, charging down the line etc.
Anyway - my local spot is always crowded with boarders. There will be 20-50 on a weekday afternoon when it’s clean and there’s one tight peak, so the crowd is dense. There’s always a mix of super experienced and total noob. I sometimes see kayakers, it’s popular on weekends, but I’m often the only boater when I’m there.
I’m getting the hang of staying away from the crowd and going deeper so I’m not at risk of dropping in (although I frequently get dropped in on as they don’t expect me to cut under white water into the pocket - something I have to try to do as I end up taking off the wrong side of the peak avoiding the boarders in the first place!)
My current issue is navigating through the crowd of boarders just hanging around on the inside or paddling straight out. Until now I’ve successfully carved around them. This week I got uncomfortably close to one who wasn’t looking up at all. Then a few minutes later the worst happened - I’m flying down the line just a few feet behind the pocket. I’m focused on trying to regain it so probably not looking along my vector well enough.when I do I see a boarder paddling out in my path. I had a split second to think but in hindsight made the wrong decision. I leaned into the bow believing I could run past the boarder. I was wrong. I ran him over and clipped his hip with the stern edge (luckily not the fin and luckily not his head). He is a friend and colleague and he was a gentleman about it, but I injured him!!
So, what could / should I have done? Maybe not take off on that wave - but let’s assume I’ve already done that - what I want to know is, if I cock up again and face a swimmer in my path while I’m shooting along faster than a lubed up superman, what evasive action can I take?
Should I have cut back? My turns aren’t tight yet and I felt that would have risked pointing the bow at the swimmer and colliding anyway.
Is there some way to bail when you have that much speed? I’ve never deliberately capsized on a wave (in a surf kayak) but I assume that would kill my lateral momentum which would have prevented the collision. It might hurt on powerful waves though!! Also send me bongo sliding out of control.
Avoiding collisions
Riding the waves
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