Weather Awareness for Paddlers

Heed this advice before heading out on a paddling adventure to stay safe.

Transcript

00:00you can see the rain moving down the lake it's just this giant kind of gray wall and no matter

00:09how fast we were paddling there was no way we're going to outrun this when we first started

00:19paddling the lake surface was completely calm and I remember getting these really cool reflected

00:24shots of the paddlers moving across this glassy surface but as any paddling trip you know your

00:30your head is constantly on a swivel you're looking at what the clouds are doing you're looking for the

00:34rustle in the trees you're looking behind you to see if there's any weather patterns you know moving

00:39up and sure enough on this trip you know looking behind us we were able to see this very dark cloud

00:45front and heavy rain you know moving down the valley and then onto the lake heading straight

00:49towards us so everyone quickly you know reached into their dry bags pulled out a rain jacket this

00:55particular squall hit us like a ton of bricks the rain was so hard that water was splashing up off

01:04the surface of the lake and like landing in the boat we weren't seeing any lightning or thunder

01:10activity there was wind but it didn't create the kind of open water swells that you know would be

01:17hazardous to most boaters so thankfully we're in a position just to decide to keep paddling and let

01:22the storm pass for paddlers I would say that wind is probably the more hazardous of any weather that

01:30you're going to experience especially on flat water so the best course of action is to anticipate and plan

01:36for the weather there are so many tools nowadays that we can use for doing that whether it's an app on

01:42your phone maybe you're going onto the NOAA website or even using a VHF radio if you're offshore

01:49but despite all of that you want to go prepared making sure you have that extra layer of clothes in

01:54your dry bag making sure you have some rain gear making sure you have a spare set of clothes back at

01:58the car so you can change into that dry stuff when you do get off the water and before we knew

02:04it the rain just stopped and it seemed like it didn't take very long at all before the sun came

02:10back out those are the moments that we go for right when we are out in those adverse conditions we might

02:17be a little uncomfortable but at the end of the day we go to sleep all snuggled in our sleeping bags

02:22belly full of warm food and we're like yeah this is like the pinnacle of our experience right now right

02:27we don't necessarily get to live these types of experiences on the day to day so it's so rewarding

02:34when we go out on these trips and we're prepared and we're competent and we're utilizing all the

02:39skills that we've learned over the years and we're working together and we're helping each other and

02:44we all come back with a very positive experience and memories that are going to last a lifetime

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