In Water Self Kayak Rentry

krash

There was a recent post about PFD's.. and this came to mind.
When, not if, you do end up in the water what would you do. This self rescue, method of re-entering your kayak has been around for a long time, but I've not seen/heard much of it lately.

Stirrup Strap Re-entry

The Cat's Eye

krash said:

There was a recent post about PFD's.. and this came to mind.
When, not if, you do end up in the water what would you do. This self rescue, method of re-entering your kayak has been around for a long time, but I've not seen/heard much of it lately.

Stirrup Strap Re-entry

The kayak shown in the above drawing is for an Eskimo type kayak. To my outdated knowledge I only know of two other methods to re-enter this type of kayak. The fastest, but most difficult, is the Eskimo Roll which takes training and some athleticism; then there is another entry that i practiced that uses an air bladder you pump up with air to brace the paddle for entry into this type of paddle craft. I never bought an Eskimo type but borrowed an large offshore expensive Kevlar type once, but never tried to do the “Roll” but was aware of the mechanics of the maunever. I would think there are probably more methods to re-enter an Eskimo type but most people fishing offshore use a Sit-On-Top that is not shown in the above drawing. I would think the method shown in the above drawing could be very useful in re-entering a Sit-On-Top as well, but i was able to re-enter my 14 ft SOT in deep water without any aids of any kind.  The kayak shop let me determine if I could climb back into the model I was thinking of buying before I purchased it. I had to remove the PFD, since it would have hampered me from “sliding” back into it, but re-entering the SOT was not particularly difficult. I did not have any fishing equipment in the SOT at the time, so that might be a factor in the method one would choose for a re-entry.

krash

That method works very well for STO type kayaks as well...  and yes there are other methods.
The  roll, sure works in a Sit-in kayak, but in/on a SOT its not likely you'll still be seated when you get dumped.

Another method that I've used is just hobble yourself up from front or rear, straddling the ksysk. but with all the stuff most people in todays modern kayak world pack on every square inch of surface woudl make that method ia real PITA.

The Cat's Eye

I was able to climb back into my 14 ft Prism from the side. I only carried a single backpack in front of me for equipment besides one rod, so i could swing my leg around the aft end without to much trouble. 

 The Eskomo Roll would not be possible in a SOT since it requires a person to be able to "lock" his/her lower body to the kayak by appying  pressure against the inside sides of the hull from the waist down. (I took some instruction for the roll but did not stay in the class long enough to try one without assistence).