Reading about sea kayaking incidents allow us to learn from the mistakes of others, so that we can be more informed and safer paddlers and not make those mistakes ourselves.
An incident rarely occurs 'out of the blue' Most of the time it is a chain of events that lead to an incident. Sometimes we are 'lucky': an incident could have happened, but did not.
On Sunday June 13 2010 I was part of group that was involved in a sea kayaking incident that required a major rescue operation by the KNRM lifeboats out of Den Helder.
A few days ago the group published its comprehensive report of the incident. I hope we can shortly make available an English version of the report. Until then I give you the English translation of the short announcement to the Dutch sea kayaking community the day after the incident.
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Kayakers in trouble near 'Razende Bol'
On Sunday June 13 a group of nine (very) experienced trip leaders of the Coastal Kayaking Committee of the national kayaking organisation Peddelpraat (Paddle Talk) planned a trip around Noorderhaaks sand spit.
The goal of the day was a social paddle with the Peddelpraat sea kayaking trip leaders.
On the northern coast and towards the west of Noorderhaaks the group encountered 2-3 meter high breaking and increasingly dumping waves over sandbars. After two x-rescues of one paddler the decision was made for an escape route towards Texel in the east. During the execution of the escape route contact was lost with three paddlers.
Two of the missing paddlers ended-up swimming and rescued each other with one solo re-entry followed by an assisted re-entry. One of the two paddlers got seriously nauseated and had the beginnings of hypothermia. One thus incapable of paddling, the two rafted-up and called-out to the coast guard on VHF-radio for help.
The third missing paddler informed the coast guard on VHF that he landed safely on the east side of Noorderhaaks. He had lost sight of the group after a solo re-entry and had continued and brought himself to safety.
In the meantime, the raft of two had drifted with the tide and wind more than a mile to the north where they where the lifeboat took them aboard. The fully conscious hypothermic paddler was taken to hospital for check-up.
The group of six that had landed safely on Texel communicated with the coast guard and, after all were accounted for, picked-up the one paddler that landed on Noorderhaaks and returned to Den Helder as a group of seven.
All paddlers are safe and well. Now is not the right time to write an extensive report of the course of events and evaluation. More time is needed for that. Through knowledge and training, all have made it back to safety. However, there have definitively been shortcomings from which we must learn. The incident received national press coverage. We find it important to give you this early first report with more information to follow.
------------On Sunday June 13 a group of nine (very) experienced trip leaders of the Coastal Kayaking Committee of the national kayaking organisation Peddelpraat (Paddle Talk) planned a trip around Noorderhaaks sand spit.
The goal of the day was a social paddle with the Peddelpraat sea kayaking trip leaders.
On the northern coast and towards the west of Noorderhaaks the group encountered 2-3 meter high breaking and increasingly dumping waves over sandbars. After two x-rescues of one paddler the decision was made for an escape route towards Texel in the east. During the execution of the escape route contact was lost with three paddlers.
Two of the missing paddlers ended-up swimming and rescued each other with one solo re-entry followed by an assisted re-entry. One of the two paddlers got seriously nauseated and had the beginnings of hypothermia. One thus incapable of paddling, the two rafted-up and called-out to the coast guard on VHF-radio for help.
The third missing paddler informed the coast guard on VHF that he landed safely on the east side of Noorderhaaks. He had lost sight of the group after a solo re-entry and had continued and brought himself to safety.
In the meantime, the raft of two had drifted with the tide and wind more than a mile to the north where they where the lifeboat took them aboard. The fully conscious hypothermic paddler was taken to hospital for check-up.
The group of six that had landed safely on Texel communicated with the coast guard and, after all were accounted for, picked-up the one paddler that landed on Noorderhaaks and returned to Den Helder as a group of seven.
All paddlers are safe and well. Now is not the right time to write an extensive report of the course of events and evaluation. More time is needed for that. Through knowledge and training, all have made it back to safety. However, there have definitively been shortcomings from which we must learn. The incident received national press coverage. We find it important to give you this early first report with more information to follow.
Upcoming first week of August I am again at our annual Peddelpraat club sea kayaking week. It was Peddelpraat that introduced safe sea kayaking in the Netherlands back in the seventies by inviting BCU coaches from the UK to set up the Dutch sea kayaking scheme that continues to closely follow that of the BCU through the Dutch Canoe Union (NKB).
Four, consecutive, organizers of this instruction week were part of the group on the day of the incident. Among the four of us there was an unbroken 30+ years of heading-up coaching safe sea kayaking and sea leadership. All nine are coaching during the upcoming week...
Have we lost all our reputation and credibility? We were stupid, definitively! I am glad we are allowed to learn from it. And maybe when others read about our incident they won't make the same mistakes or recognize some aspects and will appreciate that many of us sometimes are indeed 'lucky'.
I hope we can shortly make available a full English version of the report that does a much better job than the horribly bad Google translation of it.
