see me

[Harry Hill]

Originally Posted by Dave Legacy

My wife claims my kayak can't be seen on the water after only a short distance away, but her eyesight is only so-so. My paddles have yellow blades, so that has to help some, but I'm considering a flag too. It seems to me that private boaters don't seem to care too much for us on our kayaks and I'm not sure that I blame them. I kind of consider kayakers/SUPs to be the cyclists of the ocean. I try not to take it to personally when a boater seems annoyed about having to change course, because I'm too slow to get out of the way.

What color is your kayak? Mine is stone and I'll admit it's pretty hard to see.

my kayak is lime green and my paddle blades are orange. I should stick out like a sore thumb but I looked at the boaters yesterday and not one returned my look. They were looking straight ahead and never looked my way. I'm sure they saw me and changing course just a little would not have put them off course, they were just a mile or so out from the harbor so a couple of hundred feet wouldn't make a difference. Sven did what I did with the big wakes we turned our bow into the wake so we didn't get hit sideways.

[alanw]

They see you but I think most of them just don't realize what their wake does to a kayak.. it doesn't even cross their mind. Seldom do I see a boater look back to see what effect his wake has. They have a whole ocean and yet they are always cruising within 40 yards of me.