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Local Paddling Conditions
Before you paddle an unfamiliar run you should learn about the tides, currents, exit points, weather, dangers, and local safety responders. A website like this is typically not the best source for up-to-date information that is specifically local. So before you go out, check in with locals who know whereof they speak. If we get specific risk information we will include that in downwind run descriptions (where there are downwindable.com and/or downwind.fun links we hope you will find local safety issues described there). Many if not most downwind runs mentioned here have simply been found via videos which do not necessarily provide any relevant safety warnings.
What You Should Know
- Weather (All aspects: storm, wind speeds and direction, temperature, visibility, predictability of moving systems, local micro effects not described by forecasts, etc.)
- Flatwater Paddling It should be obvious that whether paddles on lakes and bays are flatwater, downwindable, or dangerous depends entirely on the weather. Storms can come up suddenly on bodies of water and quickly create unboatable conditions. Always be careful to consult weather forecasts, be aware of micro climate variations that can contradict such forecasts, don't trust weather forecasts that depend on the timing of nearby systems or storms that can move closer or faster than is being predicted, and have fast exit plans in the case of untimely wind and paddling conditions.
- Local Water Temperatures - Cold Water Paddling
Shipping/Boat/Foil/Kite/etc. Traffic/Access
- Local Powerboat Traffic - (How much, where, when, how many tend to be drunk, speeding??, etc.)
- Local Launches - (Good locations, Availability for unplanned exits, Shoreline stretches that allow little or no exit - rocky, steep, shorebreak, etc.)
- Active Captain Garmin website (and app) that maps and describes worldwide boat launches, harbors, moorage, and hazards (rocks, shallows, current)
What to be Aware of
(and Avoid if you lack the equipment, experience, skill and support to safely pass through or play in)
- Shallows (near shore or off shore reefs, banks, rocks, ledges) - too shallow to boat over? or cause waves to increase in size and/or break (boomers)/bommies? Whether off shore waves break is dependent on how shallow the water gets and how large the waves are. You can have a shallow area where only the largest waves break intermittently (and unexpectedly if you are not familiar with the area). Areas that are problematic at low tide or the potential source of boomers can be anticipated via nautical charts.
- Wild Life (dangerous, protected, invasive, etc.)
- Local Water Quality sad to say, but there are coastal places where you probably do not want to paddle or at least not practice your remounts. North America Surfrider 2024 Clean Water Report
- Local Political Tension/Hotspots
- Local Crime, Spots to Avoid, Parking Breakins
What to Seek Out/Potential Help
- Local Boaters, Guides, Folks in On Water Businesses
- Coast Guard, Police, EMS, Other
- Cell Reception, VHF coverage, Dead (No Reception) Zones?
- Attractions for Paddlers
- Scenery
- Good Downwinds, etc.
Pirates of the Caribbean :
Gibbs: “Look alive and keep a weather eye, men! It's not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island where lies Shipwreck Cove in the town of Shipwreck.”
