The legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, used to teach his players “the correct way” to put on socks and how to tie their shoelaces. This lesson (which I first encountered reading Ryan Holiday) wasn’t meant to infantilize the players but to remind them of the importance of easily overlooked details.
He would say, “…if there are wrinkles in your socks or your shoes aren’t tied properly, you will develop blisters. With blisters, you’ll miss practice. If you miss practice, you don’t play. And if you don’t play, we cannot win.”
Sea kayaking is full of consequential details like that. But unlike on the basketball court, lapses in attention to detail on the water can have catastrophic outcomes.
Hatches need to be checked and double-checked, or your boat could flood. Gear that isn’t lashed down or attached to your PFD will be lost to the waves—Poseidon is a kleptomaniac.
Even when you come ashore, the details don’t stop mattering, and the consequences remain high.
You have to be super disciplined about keeping your sleeping bag and dry kit dry to prevent hypothermia and discomfort, even if that means changing back into wet clothes to do the most minor chore outside your tent. Hygiene matters even more when you can’t wash your hands or properly clean your one utensil. And, as I learned the hard way, lifting a loaded boat on land comes with a higher risk of injury than almost anything you do on the water.
And, believe it or not, this is what I love about sea kayaking. Not the danger factor or risk of injury, but time spent in an environment where everything matters and you have to be constantly switched-on.
Sofa training
But you don’t always have to go out into extreme conditions to prepare for them. Some of the small but important details can be drilled from the comfort of your living room. One such detail is rope management.
I always carry a throw bag (pictured above), attached to a quick-release belt, containing 15 meters of rope with carabiners at either end. This is an essential piece of safety kit for rescuing other water users (or being rescued), towing an exhausted buddy, swim landing, tying down my boat on shore in high wind, or tethering myself to my kayak in extreme conditions.
There’s just one problem. I suck at rope management. I just don’t practice it enough. And as a mostly solo paddler, I have nobody to throw the rope to anyway.
But there’s no excuse for coming up short with safety skills. I refuse to put others in danger because I’m clumsy or carry gear I don’t know how to use. I think of Roz Savage’s advice to ocean rowers, “Prepare like your life depends on it—because it does.”
So this is something I’ve been practicing, with the weather keeping me shore-bound. And when I say I’ve been practicing, I mean constantly.
I practice feeding the rope back into the bag over and over when I’m watching TV. I keep the damp throw bag at my desk to pack and unpack during breaks. I practice throwing rope in the backyard, racing to see how quickly I can restuff the bag or make fast coils to throw it again.
Like Wooden’s team putting on their socks, the point of all this repetition isn’t to get it right but to practice until I can’t possibly get it wrong.
Note: Always have a knife handy when towing or handing lines on the water.
Thanks for reading,
-Charlie
Kokatat is the official gear sponsor of The Lap.
The lap will be fueled by Resilient Nutrition’s Long Range Fuel and bars.
Expedition coffee by 3fe.
CH Marine will be providing a VHF radio and other safety equipment.
Tent and cooking gas provided by Paddle & Pitch. Trolley by KCS.
REAL Field Meals at a discount from Adventure.ie.
I should have taught you how to sew.
Love this, Charlie. So true! One of the things Robert Greene often stresses in his talks and IG videos is the TEDIUM (his word) of pursuing any endeavor in the arts. Beethoven didn't get where he got without practicing a lot of scales. Keep it up, baby!