What are some of your "close calls" while paddling?


OutdoorEnvy

OutdoorEnvy

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I thought it would be good to hear some stories of "close calls" or even disaster scenarios that have happened to you while paddling. I am also curious what you learned from it and what you do differently since it happened. I hope this will be an informative thread to help everyone be more knowledgeable and prepared while enjoying the great sport of paddling. Thank you in advance and be safe out there.
 
Did not happen to me specifically, but to one of my fishing buddies. A group of us (8), were paddling out to a gas rig that is 1.4 miles off the coast of Surfside Beach, TX for day filled with Kingfish, Ling, Snapper, and of course Sharks. We were there maybe 2 hours when Johnny hooked into a 5 foot Bull shark. Nothing abnormal about that, except for the fact that when he got the shark to his kayak, it decided that it had a little more fight left and actually bit the bow. Now with 4 long shark tooth gouges running about 8 inches down his bow, Johnny was taking on water like the Titanic. When you are that far offshore, taking on water just stinks plain and simple. Another guy that was with us brought his trusty roll of duct tape. Covering the inside of the hull and the outside while using a hand bilge pump every 10 minutes got us back to shore, but it was long trip back. That kayak now sits above his workbench as a reminder. You can never have too much duct tape.
 
Too many....too often.......but the only ones that 'haunt me' are the water moccasin ones!!!! :16::mad:


I'm seriously considering upgrading my little NAA Mini that I carry in my PFD to at least a snubbie with .38 shotshell (a gun I own) or maybe the new smaller Judge or a Bond Arms (guns I don't own) to get the .410

It comes with the territory I enjoy fishing - lots of backwater bays and small pothole ponds....most snakes (if I see them) just sink away...but water mocs have no fear and have tried to attack the canoe and/or paddle more times than I care to remember. :confused:
 
One of the first times my friend and I went canoe camping, we had a late start at launching. It was going to be in the 20's at night, so my friend insisted on bringing firewood since we knew we would be showing up to the island after dark. Also, the island was bare of trees. So, the canoe was loaded down more than I wanted. He is pretty hard headed and it was his canoe, so I quit arguing and let it be. We were sitting very low to the water. Right before the island there is a small waterfall (2' to 4' tall) to navigate. We hit the waterfall right when the darkness fell upon us. Before we could even go down it, the current shot us sideways, which we then hit a rock that sunk that side of the canoe. It filled up with water and we bailed. Luckily it was only about 3' deep, but the water was just above freezing. The canoe rolled on its side and most of my gear started floating away. I chased it down and we then decided to grab what we could and take it to shore. My clothes, tent, equipment and food were soaked through and through. I then noticed my axe was missing. Back into the freezing water to search for it. Finally after wading in 3' to 4' of water, I saw my axe sitting on the river bottom. Man was I happy to see her.

We walked the canoe and all of our gear to the island to see what the damage was. I was shivering and soaked to the bone. The thermometer said it was 27 degrees. A little worried is an understatement. We finally got the fire going and started to hang what clothes we had and our sleeping bags next to the fire to dry out a little. My sleeping bag and sleeping clothes were soaked. After sitting by the fire and warming up a bit, it was time to try and get some sleep. Worst night sleep of my life. I ended up waking around 3 or 4am shivering tremendously, so I sat by the fire until the sun rose. We made it through the night. I was a happy man that morning.

Lessons learned:
- Tie everything down to the canoe that can "swim off".
- Place every piece of gear in dry bags (especially sleeping bag, clothes, food, tent)
- Never listen to your hard headed and inexperienced friend.
- Do not load the canoe down with too much weight.
- Being wet and cold can definitely lead to hypothermia. NOT FUN!!
- Be prepared for the worst!

Hope this story helps someone a little.
 
OK. I had my wife drop me off at the top of a ridge, that supposedly led to the trail head for a class 3-4 creek in Alaska. I dragged my boat (ww kayak's were alot bigger then) down a 4 wheeler trail to the end of the ridge. Unfortunately, there was no clear trail down. So I flung and slid. My boat ended up halfway into the creek. My dry suit wasn't exactly watertight after the slide. I put on and quickly realized the creek was WAY too high. Class 3's were 4's and all bets were off on the rest of the rapids. No way to walk out. Steep and loose. Survival paddle. I came around the corner into BIG wave/holes and a bear(big and brown) on a carcass on a sandbar very close. He charged and we swam 2 or 3 rapids together. I came out of my boat in a big hole. Climbed out through saplings. Found the boat under a logjam a few hundred yards down stream...5 or 6 feet under the water. Took 8 hours to walk out to a paved road. I "felt" that bear behind me every step of the way. Kayak's still there as far as I know.

Short version.

EDIT Lessons' obvious.
 
Last edited:
I was 17 or 18 and went on an 15 day trip through Colorado with the camp I went to growing up. We were white water rafting and headed down river with some pretty big rapids. There was a guy in our boat who was very obese(not trying to be mean to larger people. I used to be large myself). Long story short he had no business being on that boat because he couldnt move very fast. We were going right for a huge rock and since he could not get to his position fast enough to keep the boat from flipping he crashed into me and sent me down river. The water was so cold I could barely move and current kept pulling me under even with a life jacket. Our guide was a tiny blonde haired cutie and somehow she managed to grab me up and pull me back in the boat before I was forced back under again. It was crazy and one of the best trips of my life and almost my last.
 
REDbeardo said:
I was 17 or 18 and went on an 15 day trip through Colorado with the camp I went to growing up. We were white water rafting and headed down river with some pretty big rapids. There was a guy in our boat who was very obese(not trying to be mean to larger people. I used to be large myself). Long story short he had no business being on that boat because he couldnt move very fast. We were going right for a huge rock and since he could not get to his position fast enough to keep the boat from flipping he crashed into me and sent me down river. The water was so cold I could barely move and current kept pulling me under even with a life jacket. Our guide was a tiny blonde haired cutie and somehow she managed to grab me up and pull me back in the boat before I was forced back under again. It was crazy and one of the best trips of my life and almost my last.
Click to expand...

Those little "girl" guides are tough and motivated. Respect from here.:dblthumb:
 
My first real canoe trip was with my friend, his brother, and their dad. We camped at our launch point the first night. Made some food and drank a few beers. We tossed the empties behind our tents in a pile to clean up the next morning. That night i woke up to someone wlking on gravel and smashing the beer cans behind our tents. It sounded like their dad was mumbling as he went to relieve his bladder. I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning I said geez Bob, you really had to pee last night. He said he never got up during the night. So I walked behind the tents. Not 5 feet from our tents were smashed beer cans and bear tracks.
Lesson learned : Dont leave your garbage around camp to clean up after breakfast or you may become breakfast.
 
madmax said:
OK.

Short version.

EDIT Lessons' obvious.
Click to expand...

I will never get tired of hearing that story.
My closest call was a trip that Madmax and I took last year. Not real "close" but I was concerned enough to text my wife I love her at about 2am. Basically we camped on a cliff on the side of the river. It had stormed pretty bad for about an hour or so during the early afternoon but the night was pretty pleasant. Shortly after going to bed the rain, thunder and lightning were right on top of us. It seemed to go on and on without letting up. I was pretty worried about Madmax who had pitched his tent right under the tallest tree in the forest. While not the most dramatic story of hardship and survival I still think we were pretty lucky to be able to paddle home the next day.
 
solocanoe said:
Too many....too often.......but the only ones that 'haunt me' are the water moccasin ones!!!! :16::mad:


I'm seriously considering upgrading my little NAA Mini that I carry in my PFD to at least a snubbie with .38 shotshell (a gun I own) or maybe the new smaller Judge or a Bond Arms (guns I don't own) to get the .410

It comes with the territory I enjoy fishing - lots of backwater bays and small pothole ponds....most snakes (if I see them) just sink away...but water mocs have no fear and have tried to attack the canoe and/or paddle more times than I care to remember. :confused:
Click to expand...

I hear ya on the snake problem. I usually carry a single shot .22 pistol if the area permits loaded with the pest control rounds(they are filled with shot instead of a single bullet) and they worked very well when they aren't fazed by the paddle.
 
solocanoe said:
Too many....too often.......but the only ones that 'haunt me' are the water moccasin ones!!!! :16::mad:


I'm seriously considering upgrading my little NAA Mini that I carry in my PFD to at least a snubbie with .38 shotshell (a gun I own) or maybe the new smaller Judge or a Bond Arms (guns I don't own) to get the .410

It comes with the territory I enjoy fishing - lots of backwater bays and small pothole ponds....most snakes (if I see them) just sink away...but water mocs have no fear and have tried to attack the canoe and/or paddle more times than I care to remember. :confused:
Click to expand...

i carry a .357 with snakeshot in a chest rig, just for those ba$t32ds...

a couple years ago, my wife and i and our youngest were in a canoe, with my oldest (they were 7 and 11, or 8 and 12) in a tube tied to the back, floating down a fairly placid river... my wife had NO experience, and i made the mistake of thinking that common sense would be evident... regardless of fault (hers for not paddling, mine for not realizing how badly she'd lock up under stress), we ended up pinned to a strainer (downed tree). canoe sideways, youngest between us, oldest in a tube tied to the back, now tangled in branches...

fortunately, the current was only quick, not fast, and i was able to "pull" stroke us perpendicular, then back stroke (with oldest daughter in tube now 'draped' down my strong side) without much help...

lessons learned or reinforced:

LIFEJACKETS! we were all wearing them.
Strainers-stay away from them.
New folks-worst case their reactions, and pre-act

I've also had an uneasy moment in a canoe with just my youngest daughter. she was then about 13 and not a strong paddler... we were on a large lake, headed for an island to camp. had the dog, a heavy aluminum canoe, and gear, and the wind kicked up, sideways... we didn't swamp, but it got hairy... all i can say is 'pack light', and i still do.
 
I've never had any close calls while paddling, but after watching my brother get flipped by a jackass jumping out of the canoe everytime a tree got within 20 feet, I tell anyone that gets in a canoe with me to sit still or they will catch a paddle up side the head.
 
This happened to me in 1983. It rained a lot the first night of our canoe trip and by the second day the water level had risen several feet. My cousin Steve, my uncle Ed, Steve's dog and I were dunked into the cold flood waters for several minutes and all of our camp gear went to the bottom. I saved only my Ruger Single-Six, a bag of trail mix, and the life jacket I was clinging to. When I crawled out of the water, the wind really was cold! It was late May, and the sun was shining; and while it was cold I suffered no ill effects. If it had been only a few degrees colder, or if it had been cloudy, this might have been a real survival situation. I did resolve to make up a PSK and carry it in the pockets of my life vest. I also resolved to WEAR my life vest any time I was in the canoe. Contents:

An emergency blanket
Waterproof matches in a match safe
Bic lighter
Esbit cubes in a waterproof bag
Compass/Map of the area
A SAK
Nylon Cord/ clothespins
A small notebook and pencil
A First Aid Kit

Steve caught the canoe, but we lost the canoe paddles. We managed to paddle with our hands to steer, and since the current was strong, we managed to get to a bridge and call for a pick-up from a nearby house in a fairly short time. We were unharmed, shorn of all of our camp gear and a lot wiser.

From then on, I always tied an extra paddle into the canoe. After many more seasons of canoe trips, I never had another spill and never had to open my space blanket. I sold the canoe, but all of the items from that PSK (and more) now ride in my ATV bag, and I would not ride my four-wheeler out of the barn without it!
 
well, different kind of paddling. My kind of paddling is in the ocean, on a paddle board. I am a Lifeguard at a popular beach destination town in New Jersey.

See the video below for my close call "paddling". I am on the left of the frame, on the paddle board, in the beginning of the video

Humpback tipping guards. - YouTube

The two lifeguards in the row boat are my co-workers.
 
Years ago I was on a paddling/fishing trip with my Dad and a bunch of his friends. We pulled over for the night and made our camp. It was a great evening and we all went to bed pretty tired. The next morning the one person generally considered the practical joker in the group was the first one out of the tent. His first words..."hey guys, what happened to the boats?' Everyone laughed but he was serious. While we knew we were on a damned release river, there were no releases on the schedule. Of course, water was let out during the night schedule be damned. The river level had crept up to within 6" of our tent door. Luckily for us we found all the boats hung up about a 1/2 mile downstream in a riff. We retrieved them back to our camp and I've tied up my boats or put them up above my campsite ever since.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...Be well.

snapper

PS - Then there was that alligator in the Okefenokee Swamp...
 
I made a kayak from a kit back in the late 70's. I finished the two halves and then glassed them together. We took it to a small pond and it seemed to work fine. The next stop was a river. I capsized and came out of the kayak okay but it split in half. I was reluctant to let go of either half cause I think I can fix it. It would have been okay except I hooked my calf on some barbwire that was in the river, left over from an old fence that crossed the water. I was going under water and held tight by the wire. It was either let go of the boat pieces or drown. I chose to let go of my halves and they were lost.

I learned it was better to be a have not than a have when your underwater. Never went out in a kayak again but did have a terror free life in a canoe after that. Got me a life jacket too.
 
Back when I was way young, we paddled down a creek at night after consuming several beers. We hit a small jam and the guy it front said, oh "poop" (censored :) ) and then started retching. He had been thrown forward on impact and stuck out his arm to stop himself. Well his arm went about shoulder deep into a very dead deer stuck in the log jam! He couldn't get the smell off of him for a week at least. Phew!

Scott
 
Scott Allen said:
Back when I was way young, we paddled down a creek at night after consuming several beers. We hit a small jam and the guy it front said, oh "poop" (censored :) ) and then started retching. He had been thrown forward on impact and stuck out his arm to stop himself. Well his arm went about shoulder deep into a very dead deer stuck in the log jam! He couldn't get the smell off of him for a week at least. Phew!

Scott
Click to expand...

LOL! That's pretty funny. Another reason why the back seat is better :) I passed a log jam that had a hog in it that was dead. I could smell something a couple hundred yards downstream before I got to it.
 
The wife and I canoed a lot of lazy rivers and streams before we were married. Part of our honeymoon was a week long canoe trip in Canada. Started raining when we got there and rained fairly constant for the entire week. I tipped the canoe a few times trying to fly fish from it. Luckily we already had camp set up and I had taken the canoe out alone a short ways from the bank. Wind was much too fierce for my skills. The scarry part didn't happen though until we were heading back at the end of the trip. Got caught in pouring down rain with the wind worse than it had been the whole week. My wife panicked a bit and quit paddling st the worst possible time and it was all I could do to get us to a small island in the middle of the lake. I had pretty decent canoe skills but that wind and my wife freezing up about got us in serious trouble. I said island but it was basicaly a rock that we pulled up to and tied off. We spent a couple hours under a tarp waiting out that storm. To this day I blame myself for getting us into that mess but I also take credit for keeping a cool head and saving my new bride:)
 
I had a very close call back in the late 70s. Happened in the Fall many miles in to the back country. Dumped the canoe and got soaked. Lost most of our gear and the heavy stuff went to the bottom including two rifles and one shot gun. the shot gun is still there today.

It was about 25 degrees and snowing when it happened. Got to say my survival skills saved my life on that one.
 
I was out in my outriggered aluminum canoe with two visiting friends from Mainland. Had them wear their life vests, had almost everything (except for a small container of fishing lures) tied down with lanyards. I'm about 1/8 mile offshore trolling when a rogue wave sudden rises up and dumps right into canoe swamping it. Didn't lose anything except the lure box, and friends brought their I-Phones which got soaked. Swam the canoe into shore dumped the water out and went home none the worse for wear. Safety preparation was good, but next time either leave the I-Phones at home or keep in waterproof case. Lures not a great loss but next time keep everything tethered. Also the factory flotation in canoe adequate to keep her on the surface but not enough to keep the gunwales out of water so impossible to bail or pump out. I'm adding more flotation enough to keep gunwales from submerging so I can bail out on the water. Hawaiian style hulls much easier to bail than aluminum Grumman canoe offshore. One day I can afford a real Hawaiian wa'a outrigger. ;)
 
Several years ago I decided to paddle my Poke Boat from Elko to Battle Mountain Nevada on the Humboldt River. The Humboldt is a slow flowing ox-bow type river but has a couple of class II rapids through a canyon.

Some stretches of the river parallel and cross Interstate 80 so I had to pass under a few freeway bridges.

As I was approaching one of the bridges I noticed that the Nevada Dept. of Trans. (NDOT) was doing some maintenance work on the underside. One of the workers saw me coming and decided that it was time to take a leak.

He was on a catwalk and there was no way to paddle around the stream. He was deliberately aiming at me, so I pulled my .44 and aimed at him. He tucked in and climbed over the railing very fast.

I didn't get rained on until real rain started later in the day...:41:
 
The wife and I did some camping and kayaking down in the Everglades not too long after we got married (1998ish). We're about 3 miles into a 6 mile canoe trail way back in the mangroves. I get part way into a narrow tunnel in the mangroves when I see that I'm going to run over a large log that's half in, half out of the water. Just as I was about to ride up onto the log, I see the log open its eye. Eeeeek!

The log ended up being about a 9-10' long alligator who was trying his level best not to be run over by a kayak. The gator lifted the front end of my 'yak up out of the water. I'm pinwheeling my arms and paddle trying not to roll over and making a noise that was half screaming little girl and half squealing slaughtered pig.

I fortunately kept the boat upright and the gator swam off a short ways and gave us the stink-eye until we got passed him.
 
Delaware river, fast current, cool to cold water, (it was summertime, but far north PA/southern NY state), late afternoon, canoe turned crossways against a V ripple between two rocks, almost swamped! Had to struggle for quite awhile with a titanic effort before we were able to get it back right!

Unrelated, but another close call happened on the same stretch of river a few years later, I was using a kayak that time. We stopped for lunch at a little rivulet/falls that we saw from the river, and decided to explore. We discovered several little waterfalls and at the top the rivulet issued from a small cleft/tunnel that ran under a railroad track, which was built up on an embankment. We decided to crawl into the tunnel and see what was on the other side. We slithered through it, and came out on the other side, where we chilled for awhile. We felt a few drops of rain, and since it was pretty obvious we'd not be able to climb the embankment (more of a cliff), we hurried back through the tunnel and out the other side. When we reached the bottom of the bank, the water "rushed" out into the river. Little did we know how close we'd come to being drowned like sewer rats. I was the last kid out of that hole!:eek:


PMZ
 
My two brothers an I were in a row boat on a lake. we got chased back to the dock by a big black snake. Since the dock area had alot of leaves the snake now decided he wanted to board. Permission was denied with some oars. My Dad came down to see what was going on. By then the sanke was stunned and writhing around. My dad took an Ax to the sanke and that was that!


Another time my two brother and I got caught in a wind storm that came out of nowhere. The lake went from flat and smooth as glass to rolling waves and white caps. My oldest brother and I were on the oars while our younger brother was full throttle on the electric motor. Then we noticed the wall of water that was coming across the lake. needless to say we got soaked but got the row boat to the dock and ran into the cabin.
 
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