Peter and Wilko--

Agreed, there are some surf zones you can't swim to shore from.
Knowledge of local tides and currents was assumed, although of course
not every paddler has it. The North Sea and Scotland not being local
for me, I don't claim any knowledge of them, so what I said may not be
universally applicable. I guess i always need to add the YMMV caveat.

And yes, deep water re-entries need to le learned and practiced,
preferably under the conditions you'll be using them in. I would
recommend that people who paddle in 2m swell and gale winds know how to
roll. It's just that most people don't and so...don't.

Steve

Peter Clinch wrote:
cramersec wrote:

People who want to go play in the surf
should know how to roll, although even there you could just swim in to
the beach if you needed to.

That displays remarkable faith in the local tides. Faith that appears
to be unfounded at least judging by local incidents in E Scotland.

Other than that, knowing how to do a deep
water re-entry is enough for most people.

Same thing applies practice. Deep water re-entry is one thing,
doing it it 2m swell with a gale going on is going to be another.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/