Worst Case Situation

One of the worst calamities that can befall a cold water paddler is to loose his or her boat. This can happen because it blows away, it sinks, or the paddler is unable to reenter it. This particular tragedy was set in motion by the failure of Todd Ellison’s ankle tether, which resulted in the loss of his surf ski.

 

Cautionary Note

No big blunders were made in this incident, and paddlers should take that as a cautionary note. Oftentimes, a combination of small errors is more than enough to cause trouble.

 

The Criticality of Tethers

A boat tether can be a critical piece of safety equipment, particularly in windy conditions. Most board surfers consider them standard equipment and it appears that most surfski paddlers do as well. For some inexplicable reason, sea kayakers rarely use them, although losing a sea kayak is every bit as hazardous as losing a ski. All of the paddlers on this outing used ankle tethers, and it’s very easy to understand why losing a boat wasn’t at the top of their mental list of things that could possibly go wrong.

 

Reasonable Safety Precautions

The air temperature was a warm 77F and the water temperature was 60F – cold, but by no means extreme. Given the fact that many organizations promote 60F as the temperature below which a paddler should “always wear a wetsuit or drysuit”, it’s readily understandable how an experienced paddler like Ellison could feel he was being sufficiently cautious for the conditions. He wore a PFD and a wetsuit, he was tethered to his ski, he was paddling with an experienced group, and he brought his cell phone with him. That's a lot more precautions than most open-water kayakers take.

 

Not Enough Protection

Although his 3mm neoprene wetsuit was fine for multiple spills and reentries in 60F water, it wasn’t nearly enough to protect him during a prolonged immersion lasting many hours, let alone overnight. The farmer john design also left his arms exposed.

 

In that respect, he certainly wasn’t outside the norm, because 3mm is a very popular wetsuit thickness. Many paddlers unwisely wear it on water considerably colder than 60F. Unless you happen to be fat, it’s simply not enough protection for an immersion that lasts hours. The issue is not hypothermia, but rather incapacitation and subsequent drowning.

 

Thermal protection isn’t a magic charm. What it does is prevent cold shock and delay incapacitation. In other words, it buys you time. The issue is whether your gear buys you enough time to either fix your own problem or to be rescued. See: How long before I'm rescued?

 

Regardless of what you wear for protection, it’s wise to spend time floating around in the water to see how long it takes you to get cold. Not until you become incapacitated, obviously, but simply until becoming chilly – just so you can see for yourself how warm your protection will keep you at that particular water temperature. Most paddlers underestimate how much protection they need, and this particular field-test injects reality into the system.

 

Rescue Culture

At the present time, assisted surfski rescues are rarely practiced. Skis don’t have deck lines or a place where a tow rope can be attached, and few, if any, surfskiers wear tow rigs. The fact that ankle tethers are standard equipment and the surfski capsize recovery drill is to hop back on the ski may have led to complacency within the entire sport.

 

Even if his companion had sprinted after Ellison’s boat the instant it was lost, it’s questionable whether he could have caught it, and if he had, what then? There was no way to secure it and bring it back, to say nothing of the very real problem of retracing his course and finding Ellison, who was obscured by waves and floating alone in very rough conditions.

 

A Seemingly Insignificant Mistake

Splitting the group was certainly problematic, but under the circumstances, a much bigger issue was having all 3 VHF radios and all the cell phones except Ellison’s depart with Group 1. It’s the kind of seemingly insignificant mistake that’s very, very easy to make out on the water – even for experienced paddlers.  Had Ellison not lost his boat, it would doubtless have passed unnoticed. Once the boat was lost, however, cold water, the inability to let the other group know about the crisis, and the inability to quickly summon help combined to set the stage for disaster.

 

Responders used an airplane as well as boats, and had roughly three hours of daylight, followed by twilight, in which to search. They concentrated their search in the general area in which Ellison capsized, but they were unable to find him after searching for 5 hours.