Awareness
Don’t be afraid to communicate that same
briefing content and update it throughout
the day, or paddle. As you will certainly find
that some members of your group in the
euphoria of the moment forget your
briefing instructions and drift off as the
paddle unfolds.
There are another couple of A’s that go with
Awareness and they are Avoidance and
Anticipate. If you are aware that a paddler
at the back is slowing down you should also
be aware that the others in the group will be
moving away from the slower person. You
need to anticipate this creating a problem
for you. So to avoid the problem you may
call a paddle break to help the slower
paddler catch their breath, or just an excuse
to get the entire group together to remind
them that they all need to stick close
together.
The information that is contained in paddle
briefings will have come from the issues that
have risen from your risk assessment of the
route. i.e. that two-metre weir at the mill. The
trees overhanging the river blocking paddle
lines. That weather to expect on the paddle,
i.e. wind strengths, max/min temperatures,
just a few examples.
All these A’s can be dealt with by good
paddle planning and a good through risk
assessment of the paddle. “Whoa! What do
you mean risk assessment? We are just
going for a paddle around the point to a
cute little bay, what could possibly go
wrong?” Exactly, what could go wrong?
Line of sight
Tony Bain is a New
Zealand born, fully
qualified stand up
paddle boarding
instructor, owner of
Wales based Green
Dragon Activities and
SUP explorer of rivers
and lakes.
As a leader the person in charge, the one
carrying the responsibility for the group, it is
important that you have line of sight of
everyone in your group. That way you can be
fully aware of everything that everyone in the
group does while they are in your
responsibility. This may seem a little bit much
for just a fun friendly paddle but sadly if you
are in charge, making the decisions, planning
group stops and breaks, then you need
everyone to understand, follow and abide by
them. Staying together allows people to get
the right information at the right time.
If you have thought about all the things
that could go wrong on the paddle then
when the weather changes you will already
have a plan for that situation. When you
have someone that is starting to slow up
you have spare food or a tow line to help
them along or a cunning plan to call the
group together whilst not drawing undue
attention to a slower paddler and saving
them the potential embarrassment of
holding up the group.
If you are on the river/lake somewhere and a
group has got ahead because one of the
paddlers at the back has a problem and slowed
down then it is very easy to go out of sight or
communication distance of the leader at the
back with slower paddlers who need support
and assistance. How do you get a message to
them to stop/slow down? They are now out of
earshot, a whistle or a loud shout may not be
heard over wind or indeed just distance. This is
where our next heading comes in.
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Being Aware, of water types (at all levels)
you can expect on the planned route and
knowing the abilities of the people in your
group is a great start, it is a great start to
help you avoid the issues arising on the
paddle and being able to pre plan or
anticipate situations that may arise on the
paddle trip.
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