Open Ocean Paddling Risk Management |
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Having worked in industrial process plants over the last 10 years where safety comes first, risk assessments carried out on everyday tasks ensured I came home from work each day in the same condition I was that morning when I arrived. Doing these on a daily basis, the process has become embedded into my everyday thinking, from driving my car to mowing the lawn, every hazard is identified and action taken to eliminate or control that hazard. The whole process happens without even having to think about it as my brain has been trained to do it. Open ocean paddling fits the same mould as your daily work tasks so carrying out a risk assessment before each long distance paddle is important and something that you must have embedded in your mind. Too think you can just decide off a whim to go for a long distance paddle from Point A to Point B offshore without any planning than you are asking for trouble and 90% of the time you will strike some sort of hazard you did not plan for and you would have put yourself in an unsafe situation. For those of you who are unaware of how risk assessments are carried out then I will share with you the steps I made to ensure my open ocean paddling is safe and enjoyable. But first, what is a Risk Assessment? A risk assessment can be a basic or extremely detailed (depending on the task) process carried out before a task is taken by following the simple steps below:
Ok, so I have seen the surf reports and it is not good waves wise for the weekend so I have decided to do a long distance paddle. The day planned for this paddle is a Sunday and I having previously paddled distances from 5km up to 15km so I thought a 20km paddle is next. My next step is to carry out a risk assessment on my paddle to ensure all goes well.
From this I have determined the following:
The PaddleI wake up early and re-check the weather forcast and the predictions have not changed so there is no need to re-assess my plan. I head straight into Dixon Park Beach drinking a 1 litre bottle of water on the way. The ocean is smooth with no wind present. The coal ships anchored off the coast are pointing to the south indicating a south to north current running. I take in one carbohydrate energy pack and wash it down with water and start my paddle. The water is super clear, I head straight for Redhead bluff in the distance. There is small wind chop which is left over from the previous days southerly wind. Every 5km I take in another carbohydrate energy pack and wash it down with fluids from my camel pack. The day was overcast but occasionally the sun would break thru the clouds so taking regular intakes from my camel pack ensured I stayed hydrated. The early signs of dehydration are indicated by the drying of your lips. My camel pack is near empty once arriving at Redhead Beach so I refill it & take a quick dip to cool off. The wind was now starting to come up from the south so I headed straight back out off the beach for the return paddle. As predicted the wind did pick up from the south and I had an enjoyable downwind run back to Dixon Park Beach picking up quite a few little runs along the way. Below is my paddle course from the data gathered from my GPS watch and then imported to Google Earth.
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