Prepare for your next sea kayaking adventure.

"Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men."— David Ogelvie

You've stopped for a snack on a trip down the coast. You're a confident paddler and you're on your own. The wind is offshore and has raised a moderate sea. You contemplate the wisdom of electing not to take a VHF radio or flares, but then discard the thought just as quickly. Shore is only a half hour paddle away, you still feel strong and you have expert self-rescue skills, what could possibly necessitate flares and rescue? Something catches your attention out of the corner of your eye. It is your paddle! It has slid from the deck unnoticed onto the windward side of the boat and your kayak is rapidly being blown away from it. Your first instinct is to lift your rudder and hand paddle like hell to try to close the gap. But your efforts are in vain; the gap continues to grow. The paddle is gone.

This kayaker is now in deep trouble, relying on the favor of the gods to avoid being another statistic. There is a poor chance that a passing runabout will notice his plight—a slimmer chance that he will be found alive by a search team when it becomes apparent that he is overdue.

Good sea kayakers don't leave themselves open to such potential. It appears that "covering the bases" is one of those common sense practices that's not so common. In fact, the Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers (KASK) is considering offering a certificate of competence for recreational kayakers.

One of the fundamentals of adventures, big and small, is that they are undertaken responsibly. Being prepared, being self-reliant and having sound risk management skills are important attributes to foster.

Risk management is neither a paper trail, nor a complex process based on bureaucratic jargon. Rather it is a mental exercise and state of awareness. It is primarily concerned with identifying things that could go wrong, figuring out how nasty the consequences could be and doing something to prevent them.

Identifying hazards: A good imagination and use of the "What If?" model can be invaluable to being well prepared for any eventuality. This involves thinking through the potential problems that could occur on a trip and ensuring you can deal with them. Let's take the incident above. The "what if?" is losing your paddle, and with it your propulsion, steering, and means of self-righting.

Once the risks are known, and the consequences weighed, you can either accept them or do something about them (manage them). Managing the risk above consists of either reducing it, avoiding it or planning for it. Avoiding the risk is easy. Don't go paddling, or don't go paddling on windy days. We can reduce the risk several ways by how we operate. By stowing the paddle under a bungy during breaks rather than leaving it idle on the spray deck, putting it on the downwind side of the boat, or by having a tether from paddle to boat. But what if you were to have it blown from your hands by a squall, or the shaft was to break in a particularly violent brace? Well, we could plan for the loss by carrying a spare split paddle, accessible from the cockpit, or paddling with others who have a spare.

In this way, by running various possible, if somewhat improbable scenarios through your head, you can feel assured that you have covered the potential problems that could beset you on your trip. Remember it is the improbable that will catch you, the freak squall, the faulty equipment, the one in a thousand wave that catches you with your guard down.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in the water next to your boat, paddle busted? A temporary nuisance if you are paddling with others, or a grave situation when on your own in a lumpy sea. This raises an important point. Each trip is comprised of a unique set of circumstances, as ever changing as energy levels and weather whims; an interaction of people, environment and equipment. Each trip has its own inherent risks and hazards that need to be identified and dealt with.

The first time you undertake this thought process, completely covering every hazard from sunburn to thunderstorm, may be a little daunting, however it will be a valuable exercise. To do it thoroughly and systematically it is best to map it on paper. After a time the thought process will become second nature and the ingredients of each trip can be inspected to ensure they become a recipe for success not disaster.

Be cautious about following a set of rules. Textbook rules are for textbook cases, which real life situations seldom are. Think through each trip to ensure that for its own unique set of circumstances you have the bases covered, are self-reliant and can deal with any possible situation. Thinking to oneself, "I don't have to worry too much as I have a VHF radio or cell phone if anything should go wrong," is unacceptable. Sea kayakers must take responsibility for their actions. Emergency services are only there as a backup if, despite the best precautions and planning, something still goes awry.

Risk management must be a continuous process, not merely a planning tool. It starts during trip planning, it takes place prior to the event in the form of weather observations, having a decent dinner and breakfast beforehand and it continues throughout the trip monitoring weather conditions, people's level of fatigue and hazards that appear throughout the day.

Each hazard that goes unchecked increases the likelihood of something going wrong. Epics and accidents commonly exhibit a pathway of unmanaged hazards, at any one of which the downward spiral to disaster could have been stopped. For example, a group member misses breakfast (hazard one), the strongest paddler goes on ahead out of earshot (hazard two), the forecast is unknown or is for worsening weather (hazard three), a sudden squall hits the group (hazard four), the group is very cold and needs to get to the shelter of a point quickly but suddenly one of the team hits the wall (hazard five)... You can see the potential for an epic setting up here. By running though the what if's for this day, a forecast would have been obtained, it would've been ensured that all had eaten breakfast and had snacks on board, the group would have stayed closer together and a route chosen appropriate to the weather.

The sea and weather have a way of conspiring against the best laid plans. Things can still go wrong and quickly go from bad to worse if you have not thought through the possibilities. Having some form of emergency plan is good insurance and plain good sense. As well acquiring the skills and knowledge to cope in an emergency the following are sound practices.

1. Allow others to be privy to your plans: submit a route plan to Coast Guard or just let someone responsible know your intentions.

2. Carry spares— paddle, food, batteries, etc.

3. Have some means of communicating your plight to others (VHF radio or cell phone).

4. Have the means to draw attention to yourself. A kayak is a small craft and easily overlooked once a sea gets lumpy. Flares can be a handy last resort or means of helping searchers zero in on you once help has been requested.

Keeping the potential for epic in mind means you are always thinking ahead of the game; spotting bolt holes, observing the weather, anticipating tide effects, being cognizant of your paddling partner's level of fatigue (and your own). When things go pear-shaped you can calmly and efficiently take charge to instill order to impending chaos.

So, as you watch your boat being swiftly blown away from that carelessly dropped paddle, there's no need to panic. You reach smoothly behind yourself, extract your spare split-paddle and paddle back up-wind, secure in the knowledge that you are in control, you are self-reliant and you are the one looking out for yourself and your paddle partners.

Stay safe out there.