Kayak safety with spring here and summer around the corner
COLUMBIA COUNTY, G.A. (WJBF)- More than 600 people died in recreational boating accidents in 2022, according to the Coast Guard. Here at home, local boating experts want to make sure you’re safe on the water.
With spring here and summer right around the corner local kayak experts urge you to use safety first if you are out on the water.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve had people go through the canal, get pinned up against the wall, a lady broke her arm one time going through there. Could be deadly,” Outdoor Augusta Andy Colbert said.
A day for fun out on the water can turn dangerous quickly if you’re not aware of the hazard signs.
“Above us is a dam, so sometimes you come out to this area, and it looks like the water is not moving at all, just below us is the canal. So, they’re dumping water out of the top– that can start at any point of the day– and then they’re gonna open up these gates on the canal here too. So, the water can go from looking call to a swift scenario…,” Colbert said.
That’s why instructors like Andy Colbert say if you’re going to kayak, you should strap in tightly.
“If you are in a kayak that is not meant for a child, and if you’re a child it’s not meant for an adult, and also as far as life jackets go, just having one on the boat is the law, but you want to make sure that that jacket fits you…”
He says currents tend to be the most aggressive during spring.
“In the spring, throughout the winter and the fall, the water is just turning from water to snow, so as the spring comes in it starts to melt and a lot more rain starts happening. So, areas above us fill up our lake…”
Colbert tells me getting reeled in can happen pretty easily.
“People approach this water here. They mess around with their phones, or maybe they’re adjusting themselves and their kayaks, and they’re not focused on paddling up towards the destination they’re trying to go to, and they’re looking forward to going to and they end up starting to draw closer to those gates down there.”
Local outdoor adventure companies like Outdoor Augusta, do offer kayak training.
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