What if your inflatable SUP fails?
In this month’s excerpt from the series of SUP SAFETY books written by Bill Dawes, National Safety Officer for stand up paddleboarding in New Zealand, we’re going to consider arguably the worst case scenario that can befall a paddler on an inflatable board. Over to Bill…
When your inflatable lets you down
Stand-up paddleboarding would be in a very different place if we didn’t have inflatable boards; they’ve made the sport vastly more accessible and affordable. However, they have also brought a variety of interesting new potential problems to the world of boardsports. It’s easy to forget – but we shouldn’t – that an inflatable paddleboard is fundamentally a textile product. It is made of fabric. Unlike a hard board – which may be completely waterlogged and held together by little more than duct tape but it can still be paddled – inflatable boards are rather more binary in function. They’re either a paddleboard, or they’re a pile of wet PVC cloth and polyester thread. If your inflatable board suffers significant damage while you’re out on the water, that change of state from working board to wet cloth can occur very quickly – and your outlook for the immediate future will change equally dramatically.
Could it happen?
Most certainly, yes. There are four possible scenarios in which your inflatable board suffers significant damage.
The board is ripped open by a solid object
If your board gets punctured by something it is of course alarming and upsetting, but not necessarily dangerous. If your board has been ripped open by a sharp underwater obstacle or a piece of exposed metal on the side of a jetty or pontoon or whatever, then clearly you’re in close proximity to some sort of structure, so you’re not marooned in deep water with a long swim home.
However, there have been a few cases of boards getting ripped open by a tree branch or other underwater detritus in an estuary or harbour while still in otherwise quite deep water, thus not offering any immediate sanctuary for the hapless rider. So, while very unlikely, it isn’t impossible for your board to get fatally punctured in a position where you will still need a plan to get home.
The board gets damaged in a collision with another craft
In general, collisions with other craft aren’t too much of a threat to an inflatable, unless of course the board gets impacted by the propellors. Hopefully in such circumstances the offending craft will do the decent thing and assist you!
The board is damaged by something with teeth
There have been instances of sharks biting into inflatable paddleboards. Interestingly though, despite the board being severely punctured, the riders were still able to make it home on the board. Luckily, despite this being the first thing that comes up in pretty much any discussion of possible puncture problems for inflatables, the shark attack scenario is incredibly unlikely outside of known areas and times of dangerous shark activity. For much more discussion about sharks and inflatables, along with the full stories of the incidents and how they played out, check out book 2 of the SUP SAFETY series
The board self-destructs
This is the most likely scenario, because eventually, all inflatable boards will self-destruct. The life of the glue used on the seams is shorter than the life of the PVC material, so this will be where the board fails. When that glue finally ‘lets go’ along a section of seam, the board suffers a full-blown (literally!) catastrophic structural failure. This nearly always happens ashore; when the board’s sitting on the beach or boat deck in the sun and the internal pressure is at its greatest. However, there have been a few recorded cases of seams letting go while the board is on the water, so it’s definitely worth thinking about. In the research for this book I spoke to a number of people who had experienced this scenario, and their accounts were extremely enlightening and valuable.
What to do?
Depending on how bad this significant damage we’ve discussed is, you’ve got somewhere between a few seconds and half an hour before the board becomes that useless piece of wet cloth. (If it’s a seam letting go, definitely seconds rather than minutes.)
If a seam has ruptured, then you’ll know about it because it’s extremely noisy and actually quite violent. I’ve heard numerous boards explode on the beach and it’s quite dramatic, and according to people who’ve been unfortunate enough to experience it on the water, it’s even more alarming and scary when you’re actually standing on it. The initial outrush of air sounds like a firework going off, along with something between a screech, a hoot and a fart, which can last quite a few seconds. So you’ll instantly know something has happened, indeed the shock (the board reacts quite violently) will probably knock you off your board.
A puncture is much slower to take effect, even quite a bad one. So let’s deal with that situation first. In the advent of a serious puncture (but not a full-on seam failure), get down to your knees immediately, which will spread the load a bit more and give you a little bit more paddling time and, then paddle at top speed towards the nearest place of safety. (Boat, island, shore, whatever…) You may well be able to travel quite a long way in prone position, paddling surfer-style. Bear in mind that your board only needs around 1psi in order to be like a ‘lilo’ pool toy, which work just fine for laying on despite very low internal pressure. Overall, a puncture actually isn’t quite as critical as you might expect. Certainly, a pinhole puncture, even if quite noisy, is going to take quite a significant time, maybe even hours, to cause enough pressure loss to be a problem.
You may come across the advice that if your board has been punctured up in the nose, you can inhibit the outflow of air by folding the nose over towards you and laying on that. Personally I wouldn’t waste time on anything like this; all your focus should be on simply getting closer to safety – unless the water is cold and you’re ill-prepared for that, in which case donning / inflating / tightening your buoyancy aid should be your number one priority. Don’t be worrying about attempting any board origami.
If there’s a boat within hailing distance, try and attract their attention while you can still kneel on the board and wave your paddle, as you’ll be a whole lot easier to see.
In the event of a seam rupture, you’ve got literally seconds before your board becomes completely unrideable. So how best to use that time? If there is anybody close by, call for help immediately (again a great reason to always have your whistle within instant reach). If you’re still on your board drop to your knees, again it’ll buy you a few more seconds of time, scream, shout, whistle, wave your paddle, you’re so much easier to see while you’re on the board rather than in the water.
If you’ve got a dry bag or anything else attached to the board, remove it now. While the board isn’t actually going to sink, the deck will probably end up slightly underwater once the board is waterlogged, making it really hard to get anything off the deck. This has been reported by many of the survivors of this situation. Undo your leash. Sort out your buoyancy aid.
Now you need to swim to safety – there’s no point staying where you are.
Forget about your board, don’t try to bring it with you.
You absolutely aren’t going to be able to do anything with it.
Next up, what to do with your paddle, if you’re any significant distance offshore. Swimming with a paddle is really hard! You could attempt to attach it to your board, hopefully it’ll still be there when you get back. Or you can try and stuff the blade into your clothing or under your buoyancy aid somehow, so you can swim with both hands.
Once ashore, try and organize a recovery of your board. Unfortunately it almost certainly won’t be repairable, but for the sake of the environment you don’t want to leave it out there. However, be aware that a waterlogged board is going to be extremely difficult to get out of the water! Ideally you will need several people and a decent sized craft. If you can’t recover the board, it’s vital that you inform the coastguard / local waterway authorities what’s happened. Otherwise someone else may find the board, report it and trigger a futile search and rescue mission to find the rider.
Let’s be clear on this - structural failure of an inflatable board while at sea is an incredibly rare phenomenon. Don’t let it put you off your paddling. But the chances of it happening are not zero. And it’s the most extreme equipment failure you could ever experience. So if you paddle an inflatable, it’s well worth having a working knowledge of what to do if it did happen. There are also numerous ways of reducing the risk of your board self-destructing. In book 3 of the SUP SAFETY series we consider this topic at length; there are a number of things you can do that can prolong (or indeed shorten!) the life of your inflatable board, and you’d be well advised to be aware of them. Top tip: It’s NOT just about reducing the internal pressure when you’re not using the board!
One other important thing to note. In almost every case we have come across where a board seam has ruptured while the board is on the water, the board was near new. So it was actually almost certainly due to a manufacturing fault; that bit of seam simply hadn’t been built properly and it was a ticking timebomb. The board was going to fail after a few hours of inflation wherever it happened to be. So it’s probably very wise to stay close to shore for your first few sessions with a new inflatable board. Do not assume that because seam failure only happens on old boards.
Also, don’t assume that because your board has welded seams, it won’t rupture. Welded seam boards can and have failed. All iSUPs still use glue. Welding is not a substitute for gluing, it’s a method of creating a second line of adhesion.
There are other structural failures that inflatables can experience, rare but not impossible. These, plus the wider topic of slow punctures, and how to fix them on the fly (which is possible but requires very specific equipment) are discussed in full in book 3 of the SUP SAFETY series.
So now let’s go back to the full process of how to deal with this type of incident, using the 3 Rs and GAGA formats described in previous blogs. Starting with the 3 Rs.
RECOGNISE
Your world has suddenly changed. Five seconds ago you were having a nice paddle but now things are very different. This in itself is shocking and disorientating, but you need to get your act together fast and assess the full impact of the situation. How far from shore are you, are the weather/water conditions now a factor, how about that water temperature, how well are you prepared for this? You are on a spectrum from anywhere between ‘bugger that’s a nuisance’, to being in seriously grave danger. Don’t panic, but be realistic about how bad this really is, because it will affect what you do next.
RESPOND
Go GAGA (if you’re wondering what all this is about, check out the previous blogs in this series).
Group: Not a consideration in this instance as you’re on your own. (If you were with someone else the severity of the situation would be hugely reduced. Paddling with someone else is always the safest option!)
Assess: The immediate outcome is extremely obvious – you ain’t going to be paddling home. And you are very soon going to be in the water. So you should instantly make a judgement about which shore is going to be closest, and see if you can make a bit of progress in that direction before the board becomes entirely non-functional. Go hard – every metre you can paddle means a metre less swimming!
While you’re paddling, think it through. If you have a drybag of gear attached to your board with anything in it that may be of use, don’t risk losing that. Once your board has lost all buoyancy the drybag will almost certainly be under water. Is the water cold enough that it could be a shock if you go in? (It’s quite feasible that because you’re paddling a wide stable board on a flat calm sheltered lake, you aren’t in a wetsuit or drysuit). This is an important consideration as it will affect what you do next.
Remember, as previously discussed, you should not even be thinking about saving your board - it will be impossible to drag through the water. Quite possibly your paddle too, unless you’re a really strong swimmer and the water is warm; it’s incredibly difficult to swim with a paddle. Get yourself to shore and then come back with a boat, a pedalo, another board or whatever, to regain your gear.
Get Help? If the water is cold and you are not wearing appropriate protection for a sustained swim, or indeed you’re simply not that strong a swimmer anyway, then this is absolutely, unquestionably, a life-threatening emergency situation that you are now in, and you need to ensure that someone else is aware of your predicament NOW. This is where a good (and easily accessible) whistle is a great option. Hopefully there will be people on the shore that you set off from; give it everything on that whistle (repeated short blasts, or SOS (three short three long three short)) until you get someone’s attention. Wave your paddle if you can, to make yourself more visible. If that’s not working then use your phone, but think about who is going to be most practical to call. The general rule is to always call the emergency services, but if they are many miles away maybe there’s also someone else you can also call, ie someone at home or in the campsite you just left or whatever, who can scramble a rescue for you even quicker.
Act: If you have a Beltpack buoyancy aid, you could either open it and put it over your head uninflated, or you could inflate it but not put it over your head yet, so that it sits behind you like a swim float. It’ll be far easier to swim this way, and the float will make you easier to see. If at any time if you feel fatigue or cold kicking in, just bung it on over your head and/or inflate it. Start making your way towards shore, unless there is already a craft on its way to rescue you. If you’re a weak swimmer and you do have a drybag, can you perhaps ‘inflate it’ so it acts like a buoyancy bag that you can hold on to while kicking your way towards shore?
Once you’re safely ashore, you can work out how to recover your board and paddle.
REFLECT
Statistically you’ve been incredibly unlucky. An iSUP failing on the water is a very rare occurrence; as discussed earlier 99.9% of inflatables fail on land, not water. However, maybe there were warning signs you should have heeded – perhaps the board construction failed already in another area and been patched up? Mostly though, you won’t have seen this one coming. Which is why if you’re going any distance offshore it’s so smart to carry comms, wear a buoyancy aid even if you are a competent swimmer, and dress with the water temperature in mind as well as the air temperature.
As with any emergency situation that you experience, take a moment to learn from it. How did your comms work out? Was your whistle up to the job? Were you able to phone someone, and how did they actually work out as a rescue coordinator? Was it easy enough to get your drybag off the board in a hurry? Had you made the right calls on clothing? How was your buoyancy aid for swimming in?
Finally, have you remembered to thank everyone involved; the person who heard your whistling and raised the alarm, the person who came out in the boat to give you a hand, etc. Never forget these basic courtesies.
Next month we’ll look at a few other specific situations that paddleboarders have found themselves in, and what we can learn from them.
This text is extracted and modified from Book 3 of the SUP SAFETY - How to stay safe on your stand-up paddleboard series by Bill Dawes, available in Kindle or paperback form from Amazon. If you’d like to learn more about being safe on your stand up paddleboard, which includes understanding your safety equipment, understanding how to read and interpret the environment around you, and of course what to do when things go wrong, we’d thoroughly recommend checking out the books for yourself.