6 Tips for Overcoming Fear while Sea Kayaking - Kayak Hipster

for this video I want to talk about six things that I like to try to do in order to deal with and overcome fear when it comes to paddling situations that might be outside of my comfort zone the first one that I always like to talk about and I always bring up anytime I can is taking classes because when you take classes and you wind up being with an instructor that really knows what they're doing they could put you at ease about so many things that could be causing fear for example one of my fears is rock gardening and playing next to really really big rocks recently Jorge and I got to take a really great Rock gardening class up in Rhode Island John was a fantastic instructor he eased me into it he had me having fun the entire day he let me push my boundaries but also allowed me to stay within a comfort zone so that I was still having fun and at one point we were next to a bunch of rocks and he told me you know what this would be good for you jump in and see what it's like and I thought I'm gonna be swimming near rocks at some point why not do it right now when I have John looking over me and I was able to jump in and feel what it was like swimming right next to the rocks something that usually terrifies me instead John turned it into a really great learning experience second for me and very important is a support from a strong group of paddlers and that is a group handlers that you trust that if conditions change or if you find yourself in a situation you're not very comfortable you know that together you're gonna be able to take care of most things that might come up so for example when I go surfing and I meet up with the guys out in Long Island those guys all really know what they're doing and a lot of times around and stuff bigger than I'm used to so whenever I'm there I know that I'm usually picking the smaller stuff to surf in but I know that if something happens they have my back same thing happens in the winter when we go in conditions that are not really that favorable we still go as a strong group and we actually push ourselves for example we'll go rolling we'll jump out of our boats will do rescues in very cold water so that we can understand what that's like and we feel more comfortable if conditions do arise that we've done it before we know what to do and we can take care of each other third one for me is pacing and they'll be completely different for each person for example my buddy Jorge and I we have a completely different approach he sees big waves he's not comfortable he goes right for it right from the beginning for me I usually chicken out and go and play in smaller stuff first and I build myself up to it but I'll give you a book example from our trip to lumpy we're not to spot that was awesome there was smaller stuff to play with a slightly bigger stuff to play with name was really big stuff that some of the more advanced people were playing in now I started in the smaller stuff and then I made my way to a slightly bigger stuff and the thing is at this point the river started pushing out so very quickly I was getting pushed and so I didn't feel comfortable just turning around and trying to surf every time because I would look over and then one or two waves down they were much much bigger than I expected so what I did was pace myself I spent time pointing into the waves and just holding my spot and then it would sit sideways to the waves and then I would say with my back to the waves and then I would try to feel comfortable just sitting there actually without the paddle in the water at all just letting the waves pick me up and drop me and if I saw something that was a little bigger than I thought bracing into them and then eventually I started rolling in slightly smaller stuff but I started to see how it felt to roll down the wave to roll before the wave to roll sideways to the wave and that way I was getting more and more comfortable I started turning around and I started trying to catch some of the stuff now the fourth one I think sometimes can be the hardest one and that's practice so see time time in your kayak doing these things for me it's the hardest one because I don't have a lot of these features nearby so my group has to travel in order to get that where we are in New York the surface aren't really that great for long boat surfing so we have to travel to hopefully and get some conditions but a lot of times when we get out there conditions are really not that great but we jump in anyway but it's just not a regular occurrence so every chance we get be it in a tiny tide race or even in one footers we go we try to play in them because we don't get that many opportunities for example the wave that knocked me out this weekend I have been practicing for rolling after situation like that for a long time and still I was disoriented my paddle got stuck in the sand and after a little while I just pulled out and got out instead of just hanging out upside down the same thing goes for launching and surf landing and surf for strong winds see what it's like what does it do to your kayak when paddling is strong wins the fifth thing that helps me get through the fear is safety gear knowing that I'm wearing the right things to overcome whatever it is that's gonna happen so wearing a helmet when I'm surfing or on going brought Gardening wearing the right amount of layers or weighing or dry suit if I know the water's gonna be cold having a knife having a whistle having a VHF radio so I can call for help making sure your skirt comes off easily a tow bell to contact oh these are all things to help me feel like I'm a little bit safer and I am able to focus on what I'm doing a lot of times when we go playing in rougher water or we go surfing and the waters just a little bit chilly I'll wear my neoprene hood I know I don't need it but I know that when I'm upside down I'm warm and toasty so I don't feel as worried about going under I feel more adventurous and I'll actually go after slightly bigger waves because I don't mind getting at the capsize I don't mind hanging out upside down and it's those little things sometimes it's safety gear or it could be just gear that makes you feel more comfortable doing whatever it is you're doing and the last one and I use this one a lot and that's a visualization and what it is is going into whatever you're doing and thinking ahead of time of what you're gonna do in specific scenarios so for example if I know I'm gonna be getting hit by a wave I want to visualize what it's gonna be like being upside down so I can be ready to roll up or visualizing what it would be like if you can't get the tab off your skirt pulling the skirt from the side to set yourself off or if that even doesn't work being able to push yourself iron the kayak so having lots of things visualized ahead of time so that if that happens it becomes more of muscle memory rather than oh no I'm in the situation what do I do now once again the perfect example is this wave that knocked me out I keep using it as an example because it's fantastic one I didn't brace correctly when I dropped into the wave and two once it knocked me out I didn't roll back up these are two things that since it happened and since I've been watching the footage I've been non-stop visualizing what I'm gonna do next time I'm in that situation visualization also really helped me when I was learning to roll I would sit on my living room floor with a paddle and then think about what it felt like going through the motion and then once I was actually in the pool trying it I wasn't as afraid of being capsized because I was thinking I was actually doing exactly the same thing I was doing comfortably in my living room floor so sometimes visualization can also help with that it just makes you feel more comfortable with what it is you're doing rather than all of it being a brand new experience so those are some of the things I like to try to do I like to share with you guys and I want to show my mistakes and how I try to get better through time through effort through practice I've also been trying to take more and more classes from different instructors to see what everybody has a slightly different method and I love learning from different people so please drop a comment below and let me know what you like to do so hope that was helpful please reach out with any questions subscribe if you'd like I'm always trying to put these videos out there so waist look Laura hi Kip sir thank you for watching and see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Kayak Hipster

Views: 141,497

Rating: 4.8174071 out of 5

Keywords: kayak hipster, kayakhipster, kayaking, kayak, sea kayak, sea kayaking, kayak technique, kayak tips, kayaking tips, learn to kayak, kayak surf, kayak surfing, greenland paddle, gearlab paddle, nukilik, rockpool kayak, rockpool isel, gopro 6, gopro kayak, kayak classes, kayak lessons, lumpy waters, surf a kayak

Id: QVgnDHtr17w

Length: 7min 28sec (448 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2017