Spending your leisure time on the water is always great but you have to be equipped with great skills.
These skills will help you kayak safely on the water.
One of these skills is in knowing how to keep kayak from sinking.
When you kayak, a lot of things can happen.
This includes the good and the bad.
In the good part, you will have fun.
But in the bad side, you may face situations like a sinking kayak.
But when you are experienced, the level of damage sustained will be minimal.
Some of the ways on how to prevent kayak from sinking includes repairing a kayak with holes, not exceeding kayak weight limit and having adequate kayak experience.
How To Prevent Kayak From Sinking
1) Avoid Dragging Kayak On Rough Surface
Before a kayak is used on the surface of the water, it must be taken there from where it was stored.
In moving the kayak from where it is stored to the surface of the water, the method you use might bring harm to the kayak.
This is usually when moving a kayak is done the wrong way.
When you move a kayak the wrong way, you will end up damaging the kayak.
One of the wrong ways in which kayaks are moved is when they are dragged on a rough surface.
Due to the nature of a rough surface, a kayak will easily develop damages on the surface.
If the distance of drag on the rough surface was long, the damage will be very severe.
This is one of the reasons why holes develop in a kayak.
Due to this, the kayak will no more be safe and reliable for use.
This is because with a hole in a kayak, the kayak can easily sink when it is on the surface of the water.
To prevent your kayak from sinking, you have to make sure that you avoid dragging it on a rough surface.
This cuts across the plastic kayak as well as the inflatable kayak.
2) Do Not Exceed Kayak Weight Capacity
When you are buying a kayak, you have to know that all kayaks are not the same.
This cuts across how they perform when on the water and what magnitude of weight they can safely carry.
This is why you will see different kayaks having different weight capacity.
The cheaper ones will have less weight capacity.
But the premium ones will have a higher weight capacity.
This is usually due to the build quality of the kayak.
What you have to do as a kayaker is to make sure that you do not exceed the weight capacity of the kayak.
The weight capacity of a kayak is simply the number of persons or the weight of a person a kayak can carry safely.
This is usually found on the body of the kayak.
You can also find it on the kayak’s user manual.
If the weight capacity of a single person kayak is 100kg. that means that someone above 100kg should not use the kayak.
But people that are 100kg and less can comfortably use the kayak.
When you are making use of a kayak built for more than one person like a two or three person kayak, you still have to obey the weight capacity.
If the kayak is a three person kayak with a weight capacity of 350kg and the total weight of the three people to use the kayak is 380kg, one person should drop.
This is because the weight capacity of the kayak has been exceeded considering the total weight of the three persons.
To keep kayak from sinking, you should not go above the weight capacity of the kayak.
3) Acquire Training On Kayak Usage
Some of the times when a kayak sinks, it is never due to the kayak weight capacity being exceeded or a hole in the kayak.
One of the reasons why a kayak sinks is when the person in the kayak is a learner in using a kayak.
As a learner in kayaking, there are a lot of things that may not be well known.
This cuts across knowing how to handle the kayak well.
Other vital knowledge like the type of kayak to use in a particular type of water comes into play too.
This is because you cannot use one kayak on all types of water.
Using a learners kayak on a more turbulent water like white water will only bring you harm.
Apart from that, white water kayaking requires a whole lot of experience before you can kayak on it.
But most kayakers who are still learning try to kayak on the white water when they are not well experienced.
When they can no longer control the kayak, a drastic situation sets in.
That is why you need to acquire enough knowledge on how to kayak before using water bodies that are more turbulent.
4) Repair Holes in a Kayak
As the duration of usage increases, everything starts to experience a fall in performance.
This is usually due to damages sustained.
A kayak is not excluded from this.
As you keep using a kayak, one of the things you may discover is that the kayak will start having wear and tear on its surface.
But if you are someone that transports and stores that kayak well, the wear and tear on your kayak surface will be low.
But if you handle your kayak roughly, you will have a lot of wear and tear on your kayak.
This is usually as a result of bad storage methods and bad kayak transportation method.
One of the ways in which this happens is when you drag your kayak.
When you drag the kayak, you are exposing it to wear and tear.
As you continue dragging it, the damage deepens and leads to the development of holes in your kayak.
But when you notice that there is a hole in your kayak, you have to make sure that you repair the hole.
To repair a hole in your kayak, you have to make use of a good glue.
This is one of the great ways on how to keep kayak from sinking when they have a hole.
5) Avoid Water With Turbulent Waves
When it comes to the use of a kayak, one of the things it cannot confidently handle is extremely turbulent waves.
A kayak can avoid sinking when on a water with moderate waves.
But when the height if the wave is really high and turbulent, a kayak will easily sink in such a wave.
That is why you have to make sure that you avoid water waves that are very turbulent when you kayak.
This will help prevent kayak from sinking when you are making use of your kayak on the water surface.
6) Store Kayak Well
In a lot of ways, a kayak develops faults not due to how they are used but due to how they are stored.
When you store a kayak in a bad way, your kayak is going to develop a lot of faults.
This is even worse for inflatable kayaks when you do not store them in a bag.
If a kayak is not stored well, the kayak will be exposed to a lot of damages.
This can be rodents eating the surface of an inflatable kayak.
Apart from that, an inflatable kayak can easily get punctured in a crowded storage with sharp objects.
To avoid this, you have to always make sure that you store your kayak well.
If you have a plastic kayak, you can create a storage rack by the side of the wall to store it safely.
But if the kayak is an inflatable one, you need to first put it in a bag before storing it.
This will help keep the kayak from sustaining damages on its surface.
This is how to keep kayak from sinking when you are kayaking by storing them well to avoid damages in them.
How To Prevent Kayak From Sinking Due To Bad Storage
One of the ways in which a kayak sinks is when it is not properly stored.
When a kayak is wrongly stored, it will develop damages.
But you can prevent this by storing it well.
1) Provide a Shade When Storing Kayak
When you are storing your kayak, you have to make sure that it is not in an open space.
Storing your kayak in an open space will expose your kayak to harm.
This is because the kayak will be exposed to excessive direct sunlight and rain.
This will affect the kayak in some ways.
One of the things that will happen when exposing a kayak to excessive sunlight and rain is that the kayak color will fade off.
This reduces the aesthetics of the kayak.
That is why you have to make sure that you store your kayak in a room or a well shaded place.
2) Do Not Store Kayak Close To Heat Sources
The materials that are used to make a kayak are not too friendly with long exposure to extreme heat.
When you want to store your kayak, you have to make sure that it is in a place that does not receive too much heat.
Exposing the kayak to extreme heat will end up destroying the body of the kayak.
3) Do Not Store Where Uncovered Sharp Objects Are Kept
One of the ways to prevent kayak from sinking due to bad storage is to make sure it is not exposed to uncovered sharp objects where it is stored.
Apart from a kayak developing holes when it is dragged, there are several other ways in which a hole can develop in a kayak.
This occurs when you store your kayak in a place filled with uncovered sharp objects.
When this happens, the tendency of the kayak getting punctured by the sharp object is high.
When that happens, a hole will be developed in the kayak which will lead to sinking when the kayak is used.
How To Prevent Kayak From Sinking Due To Bad Transportation
1) Use a Rack When Transporting a Plastic Kayak
When you are transporting your kayak to where you want to use it, you have to do this safely.
This will help increase the longevity of the kayak.
One of the ways of doing this is to make use of a kayak rack.
This will help you put your kayak on your car and transport it to where you want to use it.
2) Do Not Drag a Kayak On Rough Surface
When you are transporting your kayak, you have to make sure that you are not dragging it.
Dragging a kayak will only lead to the damage of your kayak if you continue dragging it.
One of the ways in which dragging a kayak destroys a kayak is that holes will develop in the kayak.
3) Use a Kayak Trailer To Transport Kayak
Most of the times the kayak that you want to transport might be way longer than your car length.
If you still transport such a kayak with your car, you might get fined by the authorities when caught.
To avoid this, you have to make use of a kayak trailer.
This will help transport any type of kayak safely.
4) Use a Kayak Trolley To Transport a Kayak
Most times a kayak trailer might be very expensive to buy.
If your budget is limited, there is an alternative to a kayak trailer that you can make use of.
This has to do with making use of a kayak trolley.
A kayak trolley will help you transport your kayak safely.
This is one of the ways on how to prevent kayak from sinking by transporting it the right way.
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