Rolled over at PC.

Sorry for this 's happened to you.

One of the best signaling devices you can have if you are out of your yak in the ocean is a paddle with brightly colored blades. Holding it as high as you can and waving the blade is a pretty universal sign of distress ... Kind of like putting your hood up on you car on the side of the freeway.

 That's some good  advice Bill. Radios will fail. Glad you survived Big Bore.

Glad you made it out alive BigBore!
Insert Capsizing Safety rant here.
Yeah, everybody needs to get comfortable bracing and practicing re-entry. But something important nobody's mentioned is practicing re-entry in ALL of your boats."Old salts" are probably guiltier of this than newbs in that respect and complacency can be both embarrassing and expensive. A Hobie PA is not an OK Trident which isn't a Cobra XL. Different boats float differently and you really have to "own" re-etry on all of them.
And yeah, damhik.

And and just in case y'all didn't notice that highlighted text in the second line, here's the link:


http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=7661.msg81554#msg81554    

A threatening moniker, an evil dory captain, a bumbling Coast Guard & rescue team.   Write your own thesis, but I’m going with victim mentality.  All I can say for sure is; Gary Link of Pacific City had better be getting a giant delivery from Omaha Steaks next week for pulling you out of Davy Jones’ locker Man.  You might want to take Onefish to the Pelican for dinner & drinks too.

If you are planning on heading into the salt you also need to take into account the period and take that to heart as you drilling your self rescue. If you can't pull it off in a timely fashion the next one will knock your ass back to square one, over and over.

I don't know what the "standard" should be, because there are cupcake days, but if the re-entry portion and getting underway again bit of whole deal takes more than 6 seconds you are going to be eating the next one

Additionally, once you get it back after flips (or doesn't) your best odds are on your first attempt. Right it, point it where you want to go and execute. Every additional attempt draws more energy and if you dump on the outside you can either get driven into break or sucked out in a rip after you are gassed.

I too am glad you are OK, but this really illustrates the imperative for self sufficiency. You counted on a response that didn't come quickly enough for your liking or maybe it could have been orchestrated better possibly, moot point. That shit is just not a gamble I am willing to take with my own life. Take baby steps if you are unsure, because the more strikes we get against us the more scrutiny we draw when we apply for tourney permits, etc.

My old man dumped a dory back in the 60's and the surfers saved him and his step-dad. Those guys get a lot of grief and not many props.

A threatening moniker, an evil dory captain, a bumbling Coast Guard & rescue team.   Write your own thesis, but I’m going with victim mentality.  All I can say for sure is; Gary Link of Pacific City had better be getting a giant delivery from Omaha Steaks next week for pulling you out of Davy Jones’ locker Man.  You might want to take Onefish to the Pelican for dinner & drinks too.

+1

... because the more strikes we get against us the more scrutiny we draw when we apply for tourney permits, etc.

+1. He said it better than I could figure out how.

At the same time I don't want to discourage people from posting these experiences here, because we all learn from it.

Bigbore, I hope your experience on August 7 will motivate you to practice righting and re-entering your sit-on-top kayak in deep water.  A couple of suggestions:

1.  A good goal is to work to develop the skill to right your kayak and get back on it in deep water in under 20 seconds, without the assistance of any gear.  The longer you stay in the water, the more tired and cold you are likely to get, even if you are wearing a dry suit.  First practice with no gear on your kayak, and then practice with all your fishing gear on your kayak.  If you lose any gear while practicing, that will be educational.  See Item #4 below.  I spearfish from a 13' Trident, and get in and out of it with 13-16 pounds in a free diving backpack on my back and about 3.6 pounds on each ankle.  I consider it pretty easy to get back onto a Trident while wearing that gear. I hope you can figure out how to get back onto your Trident without the handicap of weights.

2.  I am not a fan of using stirrups, paddle floats, and other equipment to get back onto a sit-on-top kayak, because people who use that kind of equipment seem to spend ten or fifteen minutes in the water fumbling around locating, attaching, and setting up the equipment before they start trying to get back on the kayak.  But if a physical disability, excessive body weight, and/or general age and decrepitude make it difficult for you to get back onto your kayak without various items of equipment, then mount or bungie those items of equipment onto your kayak in a location where you can find and deploy them within seconds of going into the water.

3.  Get an experienced kayaker to show you how to do a low brace and a high brace, and practice and use those skills.  If you have a good brace, you'll almost never end up in the water.  if you are using a pedal kayak, practice making horrified faces in the mirror, and practice getting back onto your kayak, because you won't be prepared to brace.  (I'm a whitewater kayaker, so I know how to brace.  But I fish out of a Hobie Revolution, so I practice making horrified faces every morning while I'm shaving).

4.  Set up and use your kayak so you won't lose any gear if you tip over the kayak.  Clip your water bottle to your kayak, put your suntan lotion inside something, bungie your tackle boxes into the back of your kayak, and put leashes on your poles and net.  Try to minimize the number of leashes and other cords on your gear, which can create entanglement hazards, but recognize that if you decide to put flotation rather than leashes on your gear, that gear may float away from you while you are getting back onto your kayak.

I've been in the water too.  The experience you got is worth a lot. 
Thanks for the story.  Most folks won't tell on themselves for nothing -

Alan

I'd like to thank all of you that had valuable advice for me. For now I'm going back to my NWRS PIKE inflatable that I know we'll until I get the hang of the trident.  The purpose of this post was not place any blame (except on me) but to let people know that self rescue is important.  The fact that the agencies that we count on might not be available or unprepared. They do a great job but can't do everything. That's why we need to be prepared and help each other.  Once again my thanks go out to eveveryone who helped me that day.

I'm glad everything came out ok. However if you can't get back into your boat by yourself, you shouldn't be out on the water by yourself.

Said the guy who huli'd in the surf on the way out AND the way in this past Sunday. LOL