surf launch

[jorluivil]

Originally Posted by Dan

when launching, hold your bow handle till your waist high and time it...jump in and paddle. If waves are coming, paddle hard so you have momentum when they hit you.

I see more people eat poo when landing when they get in really close and it's in knee high little dinkers and they catch a rail and tumble. avoid all that crap by just jumping out when you are waist high and quickly grab the rear handle and keep the kayak pointed at land. lift the stern up when a wave comes to keep your reels dry. walk your kayak to the shore and you are all good. surfing a loaded tippy beast can be pretty hard. throwing both legs into the water can help control your landing as well.

alot of people stress out over the launch and landing when it's really only 1 minute of the trip. charge it on the way out and finesse it on the way in.

This exactly what I do when launching and landing. I've taken some pretty large waves to the chest, one actually knocked my FF off the mount. When landing I never take a chance, here's what I do when landing.

1. Get close enough to the shore but stay just short of where the waves are cresting......look behind you.
2. Grab paddle and stick in the water trying to touch the bottom, this will give you an indication of how deep it is.....look behind you.
3. Jump in and immediately grab the back of the yak, HOLD ON TIGHT while looking behind you.

I haven't been tossed yet but this last weekend when I was coming in I jumped off the yak and DIDN'T LOOK BEHIND ME. I started to walk in and about 5seconds after I grabbed my yak a large wave broke right at my stern...totally caught me by surprise. The force of the wave was so strong and I held on so tight to my yak that my hand was sore for two days.....I couldn't afford to let go.

P.S. always look behind you!!!

[CurtyL]

Don't want to sound like I'm bragging but in 10 years I've only botched 1 or 2 landngs in all kinds of conditions. 1st thing is to wait patiently for as long as it takes to catch the best window in the swell. 2nd is that riding a wave in on a SOT with no fin or keelboard for stability is an exercise in counterintuitive stearing. You needto dig a c-stroke when you want to rudder, and rudder when you want to dig. Most of the time you'll be digging as ruddering usually ends up in a high-side rail dump. Keep digging all the way until your keel hits sand. The minute you stop paddling you give control to the wave. I jump out in ankle deep water every time.