you all ever go out SOLO?

The safety talk here leans too much into gear and being with buddies etc and never enough about fitness. It doesnt occur to most people they might need to swim to shore

How far can you swim?

Not a rhetorical question

My rule of thumb is don’t go farther than I can swim. Ive been 8 miles out and i know I could swim that. Being a slow swimmer that would be 4 1/2 hours not accounting for currents or predators

Just food for thought

Solo isn’t for everyone but it’s what Ive done my whole life and not gonna change that now

Johnz where do you do your open water swimming?

My surfer son just ran off to college so I need an alternate plan. Right now it’s all pool time, not the same as swimming in the salt

Johnz where do you do your open water swimming?

My surfer son just ran off to college so I need an alternate plan. Right now it’s all pool time, not the same as swimming in the salt

I live in Alameda. Swim the pools here and also off the beach.

Im getting my mile a day in the pool 5-6 days a week but might start doing the drive to the coast for saltwater swims which is a lot better for you

Keeping up the fitness is money in the bank for when you get older especially if/when health events hit you

Paul wrote:

Keeping up the fitness is money in the bank for when you get older especially if/when health events hit you

It can be, for sure. Certainly can greatly aid in recovery. But sometimes you get hit with something that lays you out and saps all of that fitness away. Itsa crap shoot, honestly. DAMHIK.

I agree

Getting knocked on one’s ass is a b*tch

There’s a medical adage that every major health event subtracts 10 years from your life expectancy Which means I would’ve died about when my dad was born

Couple of years ago I listened to some really smart MD/research guys talking about how you lose muscle mass you can never get it back With a little help from my son we proved that one wrong Long way to go but bailing is better than sinking

This is sounding like old guys whining about their woes There are enough OGs here maybe it should be its own thread

How fit you are matters if you’re going on the ocean on a kayak

More important than safety gear or whether you’re solo or not

FishermanX what is DAMHIK?

FishermanX what is DAMHIK?

"don't ask me, how i know"   

O

Apparently we’re sailing the same kind of leaky boat

A long time ago a bunch of us were having dinner at work the conversation somehow came around to a tacky looking strip joint on the el camino

Without thinking one guy let slip “that place is expensive!”

He should’ve followed with DAMHIK

There is plenty of weekly or biweekly open water swim groups in SF, Palo Alto, Alameda, and Richmond.  Some in Santa Cruz as well. Just google "open water master swimming".  8 miles @ 4.5 hour is pretty damn good 

Im getting my mile a day in the pool 5-6 days a week but might start doing the drive to the coast for saltwater swims which is a lot better for you

Keeping up the fitness is money in the bank for when you get older especially if/when health events hit you

I look for the answer in the scuba diving culture,,
group one are the recreational divers who stress the importance on having a buddy, however this leaves a few black holes that cause many divers to fail at something and they die.
another group are the tech and cave divers, again, having a buddy is critical. but because of more difficult dives they also rely on the diver to be prepared as if he were alone, so they have major redundency in equipment, extra equipment and training as well as understanding physical health and physical training will lead to success with their mission.
over the years recreational divers are now using many of the tech divers safety attitude can be used by them to close those black holes.

in closing know your limits, always learn from your mistakes, learn from other people's mistakes and always over prepare.
while it is good to be able to swim a long distance from what I understan, rescue personal say it is best to stay where you are and wait for your rescue. ALWAY CARRY MULTIPLE RADIO, MOB DEVICE, SATELLITE RESCUE,   FLARES and I also carry back up floats, extra water for major issue.

just be prepared and learn from the stories you read about on the NOR CAL forum, good luck.

8 miles @ 4.5 hour is pretty damn good 

Friends of mine my age are way faster

Where I swim any given day there might be a 95 year old on one side of me and an Olympic level the other The 95 y/o is a friend He thinks he’s being lazy because he only swims in summer. I know it’s good for you but Im too undisciplined for masters

The ocean time last several years was doing surf video but the surfer just went off to college. I’ll watch the swell and get out when it’s good either here or down in San Diego

The safety talk here leans too much into gear and being with buddies etc and never enough about fitness. It doesnt occur to most people they might need to swim to shore

How far can you swim?

Not a rhetorical question

My rule of thumb is don’t go farther than I can swim. Ive been 8 miles out and i know I could swim that. Being a slow swimmer that would be 4 1/2 hours not accounting for currents or predators

Just food for thought

Solo isn’t for everyone but it’s what Ive done my whole life and not gonna change that now

I don’t know how far I could swim in the cold water even with a pdf and wetsuit. I drive cars, fly in airplanes and kayak on the ocean even though I know I can’t physically cover every possible negative outcome. I try to minimize my risk and still live life.

in closing know your limits, always learn from your mistakes, learn from other people's mistakes and always over prepare.
while it is good to be able to swim a long distance from what I understan, rescue personal say it is best to stay where you are and wait for your rescue.

Pack your SOT kayak full of pool noodles, and it's not going to sink. And "yes" to staying with your kayak and carrying redundant safety systems...

Pool noodles are good but as heavy as most yaks get loaded I’m a skeptic. And a yak full of water is a beast to handle

Safety gear is good but not everything For maybe 30 years my safety gear was a knife a line to the nose of my yak and a couple of cans of coke Once I started going offshore a compass

Swimming is a last resort thing but you have to keep an open mind re situations don’t follow any rules

The guy I rescued above Muir wouldn’t have been able to swim back to the cove in the current that was running. Even if his yak hadn’t sunk to the bottom he couldn’t have gone anywhere but toward Stinson and his closest exit wouldve been the little nudie beach a few miles up from where he got into trouble

Most people can swim farther than they think If you need to swim you will

As tends to happen I’m getting old and funky and I can probably swim farther than I can walk at this point

Matters what youre wearing of course