This is something I’ve been thinking about writing for a while – a take on the 2014-ish YouTube “what’s in my bag?” trend. Let’s take a look in my buoyancy aid and see what I take out paddling!
I’m a big fan of the buoyancy aid, mostly because it’s the single most important bit of safety kit every paddler should be using – and that means wearing it, not stowing it under your decklines or using it as a cushion, both of which I’ve seen in the last month. Secondly, because it’s a really useful way of transporting smallish things that you want either close at hand or kept safe.
My buoyancy aid is the ITIWIT Canoe Kayak and SUP 50N life vest with pockets. I upgraded from the basic pocketless one when I started at the boathouse because I thought having pockets would be useful once I start helping with other people. It’s also useful, it turns out, for when I go out kayaking on my own because I can take my car key with me and not worry about either leaving it on shore somewhere or the drybag of useful stuff falling overboard.
My buoyancy aid has three internal pockets zipped safely away inside the main compartment and three sections in the mesh outer pocket, plus a hydration bladder pocket on the back. I don’t use this because I can’t really get at it and I’m rarely out long enough to want a hose coming over my shoulder to drink from.
Inside, I keep a tiny 1l drybag. At the boathouse, this mostly only contains a blister pack of Gaviscon. I get reflux when I’m paddling, especially if I’m working hard and putting pressure on my core. At this point, I’m usually wise enough to take some before I go out if I’m doing anything more than a gentle boathouse evening but I always have some with me just in case. I’ve recently replaced this drybag because the one I’ve been using all summer is one I unthinkingly put a match down on a few years ago. The match was out but only just and it was still hot and burnt a tiny hole in it. So it’s very much not been a properly sealed drybag. This is where I put my car key if I need to and occasionally my bank card just in case, but if they’re in there, I’m extra conscious of not accidentally capsizing. At the boathouse, I leave everything valuable inside the boathouse. Our manager and usually one of the unit leaders stay there so everything’s secure.
This season I’ve started carrying a length of sling and a couple of bent gate carabiners. We have a proper towline that we take out with us at the boathouse – there was one time when I assumed Leader #2 was going to take it and Leader #2 assumed I was going to take it and by the time we got out on the water, we discovered no one had it, but usually she takes it if she’s there and I take it if she’s not. Besides, our instructor has her own sling attached to her boat so we’re not entirely unable to tow. Anyway, as I demonstrated in the 2023 season, a contact tow will do the job just fine most of the time. We don’t go a long way from shore and we’ve never yet had a Guide unable to hold onto my boat while I paddle her back. My sling has so far been used for nothing more than tying me up to the buoy where we raft up for a game of “head, shoulders, knees and jump”. Leader #2 just hangs onto the buoy and was delighted and amazed by my innovation. Leader #3 who does that job if he’s there, also ties up so he must have something sling-like in the canoe. I keep mine neatly rolled up in the inner pocket unless it’s just been used, in which case it usually just gets clipped messily onto my boat until we get back to shore. One time I dropped it in the bottom of the kayak and promptly capsized, so the original is on the bottom of the sea and the replacement is now treated with more care.
I also have a Girlguiding Adventure Leader badge in there. I took it with me a couple of times for photos and then didn’t think to take it out because it’s so small I forgot it’s there. I don’t take it out now because you never know when you might want to take a photo of yourself with it out on the water, demonstrating your Adventure Leader credentials.
The outer pockets have elastic loops so you can attach things but the inners don’t, always assuming you’ll keep the pocket zipped up. Well, I occasionally don’t think to do it up again if I take my sling out. So I sewed an elastic loop in there to attach my phone case to. Leader #1 keeps her phone in exactly the same waterproof pouch around her neck, underneath her buoyancy aid. I prefer to have mine inside, not strangling me. But that time I capsized, I was putting away my sling and the BA was unzipped and it took a while before I realised my phone was in its case just loose and at risk of falling out when I went upside down. Fortunately, it didn’t, but now it’s attached so it can’t. It may become an entanglement risk if it falls out but at least it can’t sink. I’m making an effort to remember to zip the thing up, anyway.
In the mesh pockets on the outside, I have a whistle tied onto one of the elastic loops on the left-hand side. This is my old caving whistle, an orange plastic ball-less thing that’s supposed to work under any and all terrible circumstances. I check the knots – my bowlines are ok, if I follow the tutorials, but they do seem to come undone very easily, so I always have to pull the knots tight before I go out or replace them with a reef knot. We’ve never had to use it, either in an emergency or for getting people’s attention but I think it’s useful to have something that can make a big noise just in case.
On the right-hand side is my knife. It’s the Petzl knife with the big hole in the joint so you can put a karabiner through it, because it’s really a climbing knife. It’s supposed to be easy to open one-handed and it’s on a tether long enough for me to hold at arm’s length because you don’t want to waste time unclipping or untying it if you’re in a situation where you need to use it but it doesn’t need to be any longer than my arm because I can’t physically use it any further away than that. It needs some de-rusting before next season, doesn’t it?!
I also have my GoPro’s tether clipped onto that loop. The knife is tied but the GoPro is just clipped with a small karabiner at each end. I don’t like having it tethered and I never used to bother but then I capsized and it floated away. It’s too expensive to be allowed to float away! We did catch it but in windy or rough conditions, I might never see it again. The tether does occasionally get wrapped around my paddle, especially if I drop it hastily into my lap for a moment rather than stow it religiously in the middle pocket, and if I hold it up in my left hand, the tether often runs straight across the photo. I haven’t quite figured out what the answer is to keeping my GoPro safe without it becoming a hazard. No, not taking it isn’t an option. I need photos!
And I think that’s it for me. I was going to write a few paragraphs about the safety stuff we carry between us at the boathouse but I think that can be a separate post at some point.
Bumblebee Paddles 