Technique  Practice Safety  Common Mistakes

Common Mistakes

The most common mistake is pushing yourself out of the kayak and not rolling forward. This usually results in scraping the front of your legs on the coaming.

Other mistakes include:

• Not checking the spray skirt grab handle is free.
• Leaning back when upside down as this could lock both knees under the deck.
• Covering the grab handle with equipment.
• Not running your hands along the spray deck to find the handle.
• Pulling the grab handle towards you - some kayaks with a more pointed coaming will not release and need to be pushed forwards.

If you change equipment or use someone else’s, make sure you understand how to release the spray skirt, as not all systems are the same. This is particularly important when changing from a plastic to a composite kayak.