What do I do if my equipment fails?
In our latest 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 put everything covered in the previous blogs into practice, in the context of a very typical paddleboarding problem scenario. Over to Bill…
Dealing with an equipment problem
In the earlier blogs in this series I’ve talked about the importance of considering what you’d do in a problem scenario before it actually happens, along with having a process for actually dealing with problems - the ‘GAGA’ acronym discussed in the previous blog. These two things (or the lack of) will very much determine how the problem plays out - which could be anywhere on a spectrum from minor inconvenience through to full blown emergency.
To illustrate this, consider an incident that happened on a Mediterranean beach last summer. A paddleboarder was just 150m or so offshore in benign conditions, when all of a sudden they found that their board was refusing to paddle straight. No matter what they did, it just kept spinning around. Yep, you’ve guessed it - they’d lost their fin. Which is a scenario that might happen to any of us.
Before reading any further, have a think about what you’d do in this situation. Think it right through, from start to finish. Each step you’d take.
OK, back to the story. Hopefully, none of you decided to do what our hapless paddler did, which was to abandon the board (because it was clearly ‘broken’), and swim to shore. Yes, this really happened. And to make things just a little bit worse, they also decided to try and take their paddle with them. Now if you’ve ever tried swimming with a paddle, you’ll know that it’s really difficult. (There are ways to do it, but you’re very unlikely to work them out while in a panic!). So our friend managed to struggle all of about 50m before deciding to abandon his paddle. By now he’s pretty exhausted, and a number of people on the beach are watching with increasing concern (and bewilderment!). He continues to swim to shore sans paddle, and about 50m from the beach starts flailing. He’s got cramp, he’s exhausted, he’s panicking - he’s drowning. Fortunately, some people jumped in and pulled him out, so he survived to tell the tale. He was eventually reunited with his board as well, thanks to a kind passing kayaker towing it back. They never found his paddle though.
So a situation which really should have barely even rated as an inconvenience on that aforementioned spectrum, turned into a genuinely life-threatening situation, due to … what? Why did this actually happen? It comes down to one simple thing: lack of knowledge. The paddler had never given any thought to how a board might fare without its fin and what to do about it. And as a result, he made a series of disastrous decisions. We can’t be too hard on the poor fella, apparently he’d only had the board for a week and this was his third go at paddleboarding, full stop. So he was still very much at the novice stage.
This very much underlines the fundamental problem with paddleboarding; very few people consider it a dangerous activity, so they don’t ever stop to think about what might go wrong. The vast majority of people don’t start out with lessons so they’re not exposed to any safety thinking, planning or education at all. That lack of awareness persists, often for a long time into their paddleboarding career. It’s usually not until something does actually go wrong that people start giving it any thought. I use this lost-fin case study in my SUP Safety lectures and regularly encounter people who’ve been paddling for several years but have absolutely no idea what their board would do if the fin fell off, or what to do about it. Have you ever thought about it?
So let’s do it now. Firstly, is it a real thing? Could you lose your fin, or was Mediterranean matey a completely one-off freak accident? Not at all. It’s a relatively common scenario. Fins can snap, get knocked off by a submerged obstacle, come off because they weren’t fitted properly, or because the fixing system failed or the screw came loose. Many boards come with a snap-in fin system which is purely relying on friction holding the fin in place. Those fins get lost all the time.
So, all of a sudden, you’re down a fin. If your board has 3 fins then this isn’t actually a big deal, indeed you might not even be aware it’s gone - unless you’ve had some sort of massive underwater impact that has managed to shear all three of them off, in which case your board is probably got more problems than just a lack of lateral stability. But if your board has gone from a one-fin to zero-fin configuration, then you’re going to know about it very quickly.
So what do you do?
If the water’s clear and relatively shallow, you may well be able to spot the fin lying on the seabed, so it could be worth a look. It may still be useable if you do manage to retrieve it.
If you’re in deep water, don’t bother looking for it – it’s gone. Fins don’t float.
Many of the standard removable fins use the ‘US Box’ fin system, where the fin has a tab at the front or back of the base, with a hole for a bolt that then screws into the metal plate positioned in the track inside the finbox. These bolts always used to require a screwdriver to tighten in properly, but now the bolts generally come with a head designed to be hand-tightened. It's not impossible for these bolts to come loose and drop out. Or to snap – they claim to be stainless steel, but many are actually made of very low-grade steel and regularly fail.
If the bolt is missing for whatever reason, or the whole tab has broken off the front of the fin so the fin’s just hanging there, see if you can wedge the fin into position – putting some paper, a candy wrapper, even a leaf or bit of dirt around the base of the fin before you push it into the box might just hold it into position. It may be that this works, but the force of the water on the fin as you paddle causes it to pull out of the box again. In which case, try turning the fin around and putting it into the box backwards, again using whatever you have available to wedge the fin into the box really tightly.
If the fin’s lost then it is still perfectly feasible to paddle without a fin, it’s just rather swervy and tedious. Get as far forward on the board as you can and change sides every couple of strokes, whether you feel you need to or not. (It’s that third or fourth stroke that makes the board suddenly veer, and if you don’t change after 2 strokes you’ll have left it too late).
It’s much harder if you have to paddle into the wind with no fin though – nigh-on impossible if it’s a stiff breeze. In this scenario you’re better off getting down and paddling with your hands, either from your knees or prone. If the board isn’t so wide that you can’t paddle with both hands, you’ll be able to make forward progress like this if it’s not too far.
So, now you know you’re up to speed on the general consequences of losing your fin.
Let’s now apply the GAGA formula to dealing with a fin loss in practice.
Group: If you’re on your own, this doesn’t apply. If you’re with others, and the fin loss is due to you hitting something underwater then warn everyone immediately! But whatever the situation, let the other’s know what’s happened, because it’s going to impact them. Either you’re going to head back, or at very least you’re going to be a whole lot slower. Can someone else give you any help, such as a tow?
Assess: One of your very first assessment considerations whatever the problem should always be whether it’s a ‘game over’ scenario, or is it something you can work through and continue onwards with your paddle session. Losing a fin is definitely in the former category; there’s really only one option on the table now, and that’s getting back. Either to your starting point if that’s feasible, or to the nearest shore/safety. You may be on your way back already, in which case all you need to do is finish the job. But if you’re still on the outward leg of your paddle, then it’s time to turn around. Even if you’ve managed to rescue and/or jury rig the fin, your board is compromised and you shouldn’t push your luck.
Next up, the question of wider safety. If you were battling into a headwind or strong current when you lost your fin, then your situation has suddenly potentially gotten a whole lot worse. So you need to recognise this NOW. If your danger level has increased, then having a clear plan of action and making a start on it becomes even more important.
The next question to consider is - can you even make it back? If not to base, to the nearest shore? The distance you need to travel in order to get home, your paddling skills, fitness and indeed the type of board you’re on will play a big part in determining your options here. If you’re competent you can paddle several kilometers with no fin if there’s no adverse wind or current; it’ll be tedious but perfectly doable.
Getting down onto your knees or paddling prone, surfboard style, is an option if your board isn’t too wide, but you’ll soon be hurting if you have to paddle any significant distance this way! Unless you’re a regular surfer or prone paddleboarder and are used to paddling like this, those shoulder muscles will soon be screaming. Realistically, hand-paddling your SUP anything much more than a kilometer is going to be tough.
Get Help? If you’re unable to make progress, being swept out to sea and you’re going to need rescuing then make this call ASAP. (Hopefully you’re carrying a phone or VHF). Do it now, before it’s too late. Don’t leave it till you’re exhausted, and quite probably even further out into rougher water.
Getting help doesn’t necessarily mean calling the emergency services in every situation. If you’re in calm conditions and not in any immediate danger, a call still might be worthwhile. You might be able to call a friend at the beach and ask them to bring you out a spare fin, or come out and tow you home. It might mean using your whistle to alert a nearby kayaker or another paddler that you could use a bit of assistance. Or just phoning your partner to let them know you’ve had a minor problem and you’ll be home a bit later.
Act: Now you can put your plan into practice.
This may all seem like duh, obvious, common sense. But that’s because you’re reading this in the comfort of your own home or wherever you may be. When things happen on the water, it’s different. Stress dulls your brain. Common sense actually becomes extremely uncommon. This is why emergency services and other professional organisations that have to operate in high stress situations practice. Because having a routine to follow is by far the most efficient way of coping with a stressful situation. “The training kicks in”, as they say.
The next best thing to actually practicing for problem scenarios, is thinking about them. Thinking them through. Considering what you’d do, when and how. So here’s my challenge to you. In the next blog I’ll be considering what to do if you have a medical emergency on the water. So between then and now, have a think about it. Discuss it with your fellow paddlers; talk through a few scenarios. Work through the GAGA format.
And talking of fellow paddlers, as a final thought here. If you’re paddling with others then the fin-loss scenario discussed here is so much less of a problem, because it’s so easy for someone else to take you under tow. The truth is that in the vast majority of problem scenarios, having other paddlers nearby is a pretty much always a good outcome. Paddling with others is always a wise plan.
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. In our next few blogs posts we will be publishing further extracts from the books, looking at particular emergency situations and how to deal with them. However, if you really want to learn everything you can about being safe on your stand up paddleboard, we’d thoroughly recommend checking out the books for yourself.