Knowing how to prevent drowning when kayaking is one of the ways of enjoying your kayaking moments without falling prey to the boating emergency that causes the highest casualties.
This boating emergency that causes the highest casualties is no other but drowning.
When you kayak safely, the chances of it occurring is very slim.
Some of the ways on how to avoid drowning when kayaking includes wearing a life jacket, not exceeding the weight capacity of a kayak, avoiding drinks with high alcohol volume and making sure you do not kayak alone in deep water when you cannot swim.
This will help in reducing the chances of casualties taking place when you kayak.
How To Prevent Drowning While Kayaking On The Water
1) Always Make Use Of a Life Jacket When Kayaking
Anytime you think of kayaking, one of the things that should be a top priority on your list is your safety.
Without being safe when you kayak, the memories will always be a bad one when you reflect upon it.
In thinking about safety when kayaking, you have to think of the safety of your kayak.
Most importantly, you have to think of your safety when you are kayaking.
This is the paramount safety that must be considered anytime you are kayaking.
To achieve this, this cuts across following a lot of guidelines when you are kayaking.
This involves the use of a life jacket.
The life jacket is one of the safety gears you should not leave behind anytime you are kayaking.
This is because when you are kayaking on the water, there might be a situation in which a casualty sets in.
At such point, your level of safety determines if you will survive till the rescue team arrives or not when the casualty is very severe.
In some of the casualty cases, the kayak may be totally damaged.
This can be caused when an inflatable kayak develops a big hole.
This causes the kayak to totally deflate and lose all the air pressure in it.
The people in the kayak are left stranded due to the damaged kayak.
If it is close to the shores of the water, they can easily swim out of the water.
But if this happens deep in the water body due to a shark or wild fish attacking the kayak, you will need to hold on till the rescue team arrives.
One of the things that will keep you afloat till the rescue team arrives is the life jacket.
That is why it is always a must to wear the life jacket anytime you use the kayak especially when you are kayaking deep into the water body.
2) Avoid Kayaking Alone On Turbulent Water
Some of the times you enjoy your kayaking moments when you kayak alone.
This eliminates most of the distractions that come from the other kayakers and just lets you focus on enjoying your moments.
This is more fun if you are kayaking as a couple alone with your partner or spouse.
But to be safe, you have to make sure that you do not get into the wild part of the water while kayaking alone.
The wild part of the water is usually filled with fast moving water current that are usually very turbulent in nature.
At any slightest mistake, this can cause casualty during the kayaking time.
Some of the casualties that may occur can be the kayak flipping over when it gets into zones in which the water is very turbulent.
At such a point when you are all alone in the water, you can easily drown if the casualty is severe due to the fact that you are away from being visible to others who could provide a helping hand.
That is why it is very important for you to make sure that you avoid water currents that are extremely turbulent when you kayak alone.
This is one of the best ways on how to prevent drowning while kayaking.
3) Carry Air Pump When On Long Kayak Trip With Inflatable Kayak
When you are kayaking across a long distance, you have to make sure that you take ample time to plan it out very well.
One of the things you have to plan about has to do with the start and end point of the kayak trip.
Other things include the food to be carried along.
But one of the most important things to consider are the things that will help in making the trip a success.
This is where safety gears like the life jacket and other things like the air pump comes in.
When you make use of an inflatable kayak when going for a long kayak trip, it is very important to make sure that you carry an air pump along.
This is because there is a possibility for some of the kayaks to lose air pressure while engaging in the trip.
To avoid the casualties that might occur due to this, it is very important to make sure that an air pump is carried along too.
This will help inflate any of the inflatable kayaks that lose air pressure.
4) Take Swimming Training And Lessons
Most of the cases of drowning occur when the person in the water does not know how to swim.
When someone knows how to swim, they will be able to maneuver their way out of the water when they fall overboard.
But if they do not know how to swim, they can easily drown if a more experienced person in swimming is not there.
To enjoy a great and casualty free kayaking, one of the things you have to make sure you spend quality time to learn is how to swim.
This will help you survive some of the kayak casualties that lead to drowning when someone that does not know how to swim faces.
5) Avoid Deep Water Kayaking As a Beginner
As a beginner, it will take you some time before you gain mastery of how to kayak well.
At such period, you have to make sure that you do not put yourself at risk anytime you kayak.
This has to do with places and the type of water you kayak while still learning how to kayak.
You should make sure that you avoid water bodies that are too far from the visibility of people at the shore of the water.
This puts you away from the visibility of other people around the kayaking area.
If anything happens to you, people will not easily notice and come to your rescue.
But when you kayak close to the shores of the water, it keeps you in open visibility to those around.
If you face any challenge, it will be easy for others to gather round and rescue you.
This is one of the best ways on how to prevent drowning while kayaking as a beginner.
6) Take Kayaking Trainings And Lessons
When you kayak, you have to develop confidence anytime you are on the water.
This type of confidence is always available to people that know how to kayak well.
This is because if any casualty sets in, they will know how to control it and prevent it from becoming a major casualty.
To get to such a stage, you have to be actively well trained on how to kayak.
When you pass through such trainings, you will be able to learn a lot.
Some of the added lessons you are going to learn will be how to swim as it plays a vital role to your safety whenever you kayak.
Apart from that, you will be able to learn how to handle the kayak properly.
You will also learn of the best times to kayak and also the time you should avoid the water to avoid casualties.
Such wealth of knowledge will help make you better in kayaking and this will reduce the level of damage you sustain should incase a casualty occurs when you kayak.
7) Always Carry a Communication Device
Effective communication is one of the most important things you have to pay attention to whenever you kayak.
This has to do with the use of devices you can use to communicate with people within and outside the water body where you kayak.
This includes mobile phones.
It becomes useful when a casualty occurs on the water with nobody close by to be of help.
In such a case, you can easily contact people that can help rescue you from worse cases like drowning.
It becomes useful too if you come in contact with a boat or any water vessel that has encountered some casualties without being rescued.
8) Use The Right Kayaking Gears
When you set out on kayaking, you have to make sure that you are properly kitted with the relevant kayaking gears.
This will help improve your safety when you are kayaking.
Some of these kayaking gears include the kayak helmet, life jacket, air pump for inflatable kayaks, wetsuit, a communication device and a lot more.
These devices help improve your safety when you kayak.
Even in the occurrence of any casualty, they will help in reducing the damages sustained.
Conclusion
Kayaking is a very interesting sport to engage in.
But like other type of sports, it has some dangers attached to it.
This includes situations like your kayak flipping over or someone drowning.
The best way to prevent this is to make sure that you are safety conscious when you kayak.
This will help reduce the level of damage you sustain when a casualty sets in.
That is why having knowledge on how to prevent drowning when kayaking is very important so as to avoid the ugly experience of drowning.
Have a great kayaking time as always.
Further Reading