Oru Kayak BAY ST Owner's Manual page 13

• ALWAYS WEAR A PFD AND NEVER KAYAK ALONE! Open water rescues
are much easier and safer with multiple paddlers available to assist.
The wet exit
If your kayak flips while you are in it and you cannot perform an
Eskimo roll, you will have to exit the cockpit and enter the water:
- Remain calm.
- Lean forward, bringing your head closer to the deck of the kayak. This
will protect your head from impacts (remember, you will be
upside down if your kayak has flipped).
- If you are wearing a spray skirt, feel along the coaming to the front of the
cockpit, where the release toggle is located.
- Pull on the toggle to disengage the spray skirt.
- Follow the coaming back and place your hands on the cockpit
handles.
- Push yourself out of the kayak, as if you're taking off a pair of jeans.
NOTICE: After a wet exit, you will be swimming next to a kayak full of
water. Don't panic! There are ways to get back into your kayak from the
water. But, it helps to have friends and experience—don't go out into open
water without them!
The T rescue (performed with a partner)
- Your paddling partner or partners will come to assist you.
- Make sure the kayak is upside down in the water.
- Your partner will pull the kayak onto the front deck of their kayak,
and drain the water from your kayak by rocking it back and forth.
- Your partner will flip your kakak right side up and slide it back into the
water, placing it alongside their boat, stern-to-bow.
- While your partner holds the coaming to stabilize your kayak, you will
climb onto the back deck of your kayak, then pivot your feet into your
cockpit.
- You will then roll towards the rescue boat, sliding your feet and bottom
into your kayak.
- Even after your partners have emptied the boat, there will likely
be water in the kayak. Use a sponge or pump to empty and dry
the kayak.
NOTICE: If no one is available to assist you, the reentry technique is more
complicated and should be taught by an experienced instructor.
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