How to Plan a Paddle in Eight Easy Steps:
Planning a paddle doesn’t have to be intimidating or complicated. Here are the basics. You can find more detailed information and resources below. And there are ALWAYS people to help you out, either for consulting or to co-lead with you. You can find them in the “Mentor Team” section (Paddling tab > Connecting with People > Mentors and Safety Skills Team.)
Steps to Plan a Paddle:
- Choose your venue and date.
- Look at tide and currents for your venue and date.
- Determine the length of the paddle.
- Note what the tides and currents are expected to be doing, the length and route of the paddle, and other pertinent information so you can share with the group at the pre-paddle meeting.
- Post your paddle on the OPP Calendar (Paddling tab > How to POC > Schedule and Post a Paddle)
- As you get registration notifications, verify that participants’ skills are up to date (Club Info tab > Connecting with People > Standard Member directory > Search for member, scroll down to Additional Info. to see date of last skills demo.)
- About 3-5 days before the paddle, check wind and weather predictions and keep registrants updated about possible change of venue or paddle cancellation.
- Meet at the venue at the appointed time and have a great paddle!
Now, you can find more detailed information here:
Step 1: If you need inspiration, go to OPP Paddle Venues (Paddling tab > How to POC > OPP Paddle Venues) Take into account the difficulty of the paddle you plan. Are there easy bail-out points? Are there potential hazards like marine traffic? Is it possible you’ll need to do a surf landing or launch? Remember to include this info when you post the paddle description.
Step 2: Good sites are *DeepZoom and *WillyWeather. Unless you especially want a challenge, try to pick a time and date where you will be traveling with little current or a following current rather than against it. If you want to play in currents, choose a day and venue with higher tidal exchange. Very best choice? A paddle where you’re going with the current, stop for lunch, and by the time you’re back on the water, the tide has changed and you’re paddling with the current again. If the tide isn’t favorable on your date and venue, consider changing one or the other.
Step 3: *Google Earth and *DeepZoom are great places to determine the length of your paddle. DeepZoom has a tool for estimating the duration of your paddle as well. Don’t forget to factor in time for a lunch break if you’re planning one.
Step 4: There is a detailed form you can download from Documents on the website if you want one. Ask a board or committee member.
Steps 5: self explanatory
Step 6: If the member’s skills are out of date (done more than 1 year + 1 month grace period ago) contact them to make them aware that the demo needs to be done before they can paddle. Likewise, if you are unsure if a registrant’s skills are appropriate to your paddle, feel free to contact them as well.
Step 7: There are a lot of resources for wind, which is the most limiting factor for paddles. We normally don’t go out if the predicted winds are over 10 kt. -- sometimes less depending on registrants’ skill levels and the venue. Good resources for wind predictions are *Sailflow.com, *Willyweather.com/, and *Windy.com/. For weather, you can use The Weather Channel and Wunderground as well as NOAA Weather Service. If you’re not sure whether predicted winds will be too high, or if you see conflicting wind predictions on different models, feel free to contact a mentor or two for advice. Even experienced POCs still do that regularly.
If winds are iffy, keep registrants updated by email. Paddle cancellations are USUALLY determined by early morning of the paddle at the latest. BUT -- If you gather at the venue and find that any conditions are more than you are comfortable with, it’s always better to go for pie and coffee than to paddle in unsuitable conditions and get into trouble. Happy (and safe) paddling!
*Mentors are great at helping you “navigate” these apps.