I spent the last 48 hours flat on my back as part of a medical test to try to figure out exactly what’s wrong with my back, which has me thinking a lot about spine safety.
To be clear my back injury doesn’t have anything to do with my time as a paddler, but it is definitely possible to seriously screw up your body in the surf. I have a friend who broke his back going over the falls on a 5 foot wave.
In moderate size surf and especially long period waves you want to do your best to avoid the impact zone where the waves are breaking for the first time and venting most of their energy. A set wave in that zone on a 6 foot day can be 12 feet tall, which is more than big enough to do serious bodily harm and even break a boat.
My strategy for avoiding that violence was always to study the surf zone for 20 minutes before launching so I could watch the sets and plan my route. Then I would only launch into a set which almost guarantees that you’re not gonna get surprised by one in the outer breaks. I also NEVER paddled hard to get out because there is a negligible difference in boat speed between moderate effort and maximum effort paddling, and it’s good to have a low heart rate and plenty of air if you do end up getting worked.
Many of the beaches on our coastline will not wash you back to shore, and surf rescues are super dangerous, so not swimming is a good idea.
Surfing back in is such a complex topic that it’s impossible to make general statements but once again, the goal is to avoid taking a big wave directly on the head. I always found this challenging in normal sea kayaks which tend to broach and side surf which is actually why I started designing kayaks. Being able to turn downwave is such a massive advantage, compared to broaching and getting bombed.
Here’s a few photos from back in the day before we had to go pros and drones. It doesn’t seem real to me that it’s been almost 15 years since I’ve done any serious paddling. (I live with a rare metabolic disease and a connective tissue disorder). I never stop hoping that I’ll be able to get back out there someday.
Paddle smart, be safe!
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