Every day of the year, a large number of sea kayakers paddle in Goan waters. The overwhelming majority have incident-free adventures, having returned safely without causing any problems for the emergency services. However, the number of emergency calls has grown in recent years, sometimes with horrific consequences. These occurrences are the result of group actions and decisions; patterns emerge from the reports, providing opportunities for the sea kayaking in Goa community to learn.
This blog addresses the issues in a practical manner, with suggestions for “best practices” that teams can relate to their own approach to sea kayak safety.
As a sea kayak instructor, I am frequently asked to provide a structure for safe and secure sea kayaking in Goa, particularly for those who paddle alone or are responsible for others on the water. The task is to create tactics that work for kayakers as they gain experience so that decision-making becomes more instinctive. I frequently present this safer sea kayaking in Goa model, which focuses on four important aspects of safer sea kayaking. Take into account a few examples of “best practices” and possible problems in each key area.
Plan, contemplate, and evaluate
Strategic plans and encounters can help us create an impression of the likely circumstances on a sea kayaking in Goa trip; we can compare these conditions to the group’s abilities and goals, and appropriate equipment reduces the likelihood of problems arising and their consequences. Official plans can improve the likelihood that a group will stick to a route choice in the face of deteriorating conditions; starting with a variety of options and a flexible approach allows us to contrast the reality of the circumstance with the potential results. A continuous assessment of paddlers and conditions will assist us in making good decisions at appropriate points throughout the trip.
Some Pointers:
Examine the weather projections. Check tidal range times to get a sense of the tidal illustration in your whitewater kayaking in Goa area. Get a really nice forecast and check the circumstances a few days ahead of your journey. There can never be too much knowledge.
Make a mental note of the probable circumstances in your selected paddling location. Try comparing the expected conditions to your and your group’s abilities. Be reasonable.
Check the conditions at your chosen paddling area before committing to the trip. Check the wind direction, strength, sea state, and tidal picture – do the conditions match the forecast? Do you need to think about a backup plan?
Take into account the mechanical problem of the circumstances as well as the sincerity of the scheduled kayaking in Goa area. Avoid combining high technical difficulty (for you and the group) with serious situations, or at the very least fully understand the implications of doing so.
Take into account the individuals in the group: their aims and outcomes; their encounter, ability, and perceptions; their health and well-being are they all on the same page about the day’s plans?
Are you a group of friends who share choices and obligations during the day, a formal collective with a designated ‘leader,’ or something in between? If the latter, how much information do you have on your ‘followers’? Are they a compatible group that is willing to follow the principles of safe group sea kayaking in Goa?
Is the group equipped with seaworthy kayaks and adequate safety equipment? Are you the sole paddler who has a steel cable, radio/flares, a map/compass, and so on? Are you willing to stay afloat in such a business?
Group Dynamics and Communication
For the experienced sea kayaker, sea conditions can be easy to predict, route selection and placement become second nature, and good equipment is available: people, on the other hand, can bring widely disparate attitudes, be unpredictable at times, and hide their strengths and weaknesses from the rest of the group. Identifying everyone’s comfort and challenge zones is a difficult task. Sincere interaction and discussion among team members are essential and should begin before going head above water.
Assessment of sea kayaking in Goa incidents frequently reveals communication problems within groups, group member detachment, and confusion between canoeists. The likelihood of problems developing is greatly reduced if we can agree on communication strategies.
Some Pointers:
Encounter at a ‘neutral’ location, i.e. anywhere that provides a variety of choices for the group based on the current conditions that day. A cafe near a variety of launch sites could be a good option.
If you fulfil at the seaside, the Law of Early Entry says that no matter what time you arrive, somebody else will already be there and ready to go – regardless of the weather at sea.
Start sharing everything with the group, including forecasts, tidal details, expected circumstances, and day-to-day options. Encourage debate and include the team in decision-making. Don’t keep your knowledge to yourself.
Seaside briefings are the last chance to talk about plans first before the sea takes its course. Afloat, admin tools will become even more difficult.
Try comparing the expected conditions to all group members’ realistic abilities. When everyone is at ease, we can take a more passive attitude; when paddlers are more questioned, we must be more disciplined in our group management.
What is the size of your group? In any challenging situation, a team of six is a decent working maximum. If there are more of you, consider dividing the group into smaller independent teams. There is no such thing as numerical safety.
Accept that if there aren’t enough ‘leaders’ or more experienced paddlers for independent teams of six, your overall group safety will be jeopardised in more challenging conditions.
The safety of the entire group is jeopardised if the least experienced member of the group is unable to paddle effectively in the conditions. Plan trips to accommodate the weakest paddler.
Every member of the group must accept their responsibilities to one another. Great planning won’t help if one of the group members decides to paddle off into more difficult water unannounced.
Discuss plans/options throughout the day – plan ahead: for example, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, end of the day. Prepare for changing conditions and consider the long-term consequences of previous decisions. Be adaptable.
Review the trip together at the end of the day. Start debating key moments, issues that arose, what worked well, and what needs to be changed the next time. Be open, share your ideas, and accept constructive criticism. With each trip, strive to become a stronger team.
Macro vs. Micro Routes
Examines the entire whitewater kayaking in Goa area (macro) and the ocean track from the beach to the clifftop to the bay when choosing a route (micro). A good route involves selecting a paddling area that is appropriate for the usual circumstances and the country’s ability. We can find the conditions that the group is looking for if we shape a good course’ from safe zone’ to safe zone’ within this overall paddling area. This does not necessarily imply avoiding more difficult water, but it does imply good timing, the selection of appropriate waypoints, and the correct paddling speed/direction.
A group launching into rapidly increasing wave action that speedily require too much of members of the group; a group swept into a tide race due to poor route choice upstream of the race; kayakers in steeper breaking waves going to follow a route through shallow water and/or reflected waves are all examples of bad route choices. Good route selection contributes to trouble-free paddling days and strengthens interaction within sea kayak groups.
Some Tips:
Before embarking on the journey, be realistic about the overall paddling area. Is the starting point flexible and allows the group to test the various conditions that will be encountered, or is there an instantaneous dedication to the journey?
Lower dedication: for example, a bay with progressively more vulnerable offshore circumstances, allowing for warm-up and preparation for the journey’s demands.
Higher commitment: a downwash journey with urgent exposure to more tough circumstances and few landing zones, for example.
Meet and discuss a sequence of shorter legs connecting locations where the team can rest and plan the next leg of the journey. Determine the best path to take between waypoints while keeping potential hazards in mind. For example, when nearing a zone of rough textured water off a cliff, shape a course to a safe zone before having committed to more difficult conditions.
If establishing waypoints and safe zones are difficult, identify key times of the day when, for example, wet and windy and/or tidal circumstances are likely to change. Use these ‘decision points’ to plan and discuss the next leg of the journey.
Remember that there are frequently multiple ways to connect two waypoints. When charting a course, consider your understanding of the group’s abilities in relation to the anticipated conditions.
Positioning and Line of Sight
‘Leadership’ are often shared throughout the day in a group of paddlers with equal ability and experience, with members of the group taking on navigation, route selection, safety/rescue, and launching/landing tasks, depending on the specific demands of each situation. Extra experienced teammates tend to offer guidance and support to less capable paddlers in groups of varying abilities. This could entail placement (in relation to the rest of the team and relevant hazards) to protect other group members and reduce the requirements of the circumstances.
When leadership is in charge of a group of inexperienced paddlers, good positioning becomes an essential component of safer sea kayaking in Goa. Again, we must weigh the skills of group members against the paddling conditions (people and places). We can be more relaxed about positioning if we are in our comfort zone; in more difficult water, good positioning is an important part of risk management, route planning, and communication.
Some pointers:
Recollect to keep a safe distance between the group and the pertinent hazard. In some cases, such as when crossing the mouth of a bay in offshore winds, the decision is obvious; in more complex situations, good positioning may require a compromise between competing demands.
Consider a flexible approach to placement; it is often simpler to move to a new position in the group than it is to ask other group members to change their positions.
It is often advantageous to be on one side of the group or the other, with all group members easily accessible. The line of sight is easily maintained; it is also easier to change course and ensure that the paddling speed is appropriate.
Placing oneself on the company’s downside or downwash side can make it a lot easier for a ‘leader’ or ‘navigator’ to make a course change upside or upwind,’ squeezing’ the group onto a new heading by simply making the preferred course change. In wind versus tide circumstances, you must decide which is more important.
If a group’s members are to the left or right of the ‘leader,’ you can simply brief the group on how to respond to the leader’s course changes. Guidance to paddle ‘on my left, within 50m of me,’ for example, provides the rest of the group with all the data they need at that time.
Take a position that maintains a line of sight and is useful in case of capsizes when rock hopping. Try to find locations that accomplish both of these goals – and work as a team to keep communication between the rocks open. When it comes to launching/landing and trying to deal with surf zones, we face similar difficulties.
When approaching a surf beach or entering a calmer bay from more challenging sea conditions, the ‘leader’ may need to move to the front or back of the group. It is much easier to adopt a dynamic approach to positioning if we can anticipate these occurrences and move to a new position in the group in good time to take the necessary steps.
Conclusion:
Group sea kayaking in Goa safety is a complicated issue. This model is a good place to start for paddlers looking for group management advice, but it runs the risk of isolating mutually-dependent factors. The precepts overlap and influence one another; ideally, we should keep all four elements in mind during a sea kayaking in Goa trip. It can gradually become part of the routine to consider all factors at all times with training and experience; as we gain experience, it’s also helpful to focus on each element to better understand its application in an overall approach to safer sea kayaking in Goa.
Finally, I hope that the ideas in this article will reinforce existing good practices and serve as a starting point for further discussion among sea kayak groups.
