Remounting in burley rebound / washing machine

Hey guys, took a tough swim this weekend in a race at notorious spot - a large, floating bridge that spans a very big lake - so imagine haystacking / washing machine waves in 30kts of wind slamming against concrete and incoming waves. I had a very hard time remounting my ski, which is unusual for me, but given the water it's understandable.



I paddle a V14 Ultra in pretty much everything very comfortably, and have a solid remount in downwind, messy water. But remounting in rebound is a totally different animal because the ski is pitching every direction, and I haven't seen any posts here or otherwise for tackling that beast and wanted to see what advice might come from some the sage ski paddlers around here. The obvious, simply not paddling a V14 here, is a little bit besides the point - I am curious what the techniques are for this specific kind of water, regardless of ski choice. Or in my case, if you find yourself in a poor choice of ski given the water.

I use the Oscar / side saddle method, and was falling back out before I could get my feet out of the water, with my head low! In other words, it was challenging to hold onto the ski, much less remount it.

The obvious first answer would be have you tried the starfish method? I haven't used it for along time, sidesaddle being more ladylike (the Queen uses it), but it would have the advantage of having stabilizing limbs out both sides of the boat right from the start. And you can get your paddle outriggering before you retract the limbs, do the final plop into the bucket and that horrible stationary moment.

So, starfish slower than sidesaddle but more stable at all stages the maneuver, so much faster if the latter is ineffective! And the V14 doesn't have deck bungees to catch on your gear.

Rough morning but, good learning experience. The side-saddle technique is a fast remount but, maybe not the best when it's real rough. Consider this; from your position in the water reach over the cockpit, hold paddle and one gunnel in one had and the other hand goes to opposite side gunnel. Personally, I like to orient my ski into the wind for remounts.
Do a big scissors kick with your legs and hoist yourself up laying across the ski, and roll your buttocks in to the seatwell. Now you have both feet in the water and paddle in hand - should feel pretty stable. Use the paddle to take a few strokes and then put ONE leg in the footwell. Get the boat moving and look for a relatively clean patch of water, be patient, then the other leg in the footwell and off ya go. If it's just too rough leave a leg in the water on each side of the boat and keep paddling til you find cleaner water or a rescue.

Do not consider falling as a failure at all, that attitude is for fools. Each fall is an opportunity to perfect your remount and become a safer paddle

I do the same thing falloff999 recommended; in fact, I never use the side-saddle method. I can hoist myself back on the ski, rotate to orient my body with the ski, and drop my rear in the saddle pretty quickly(with my legs hanging over the sides and in the water to keep me stable). I was in a similar situation last year, having intentionally paddled my V12 into a region between the shore and a very close island on a local lake to get some practice in the disturbed water from all the boat wakes rebounding back and forth. After a few tosses I finally swallowed my price, kept my legs out after the remount, and paddled out of the mess "training wheel style" until I got to some cleaner water where I could resume "feet inside" paddling. As they say, "sometimes discretion is the better part of valor".

falloff999 wrote: Do a big scissors kick with your legs and hoist yourself up laying across the ski, and roll your buttocks in to the seatwell.

I think I am tracking, but how exactly do you do the scissor kick and get the leg over the ski? I am imagining the leg passes by the footbrace, but not sure how to do that without the seat in the bucket? If it goes in the bucket first that sounds like the side saddle method, so I am not quite tracking on the movement.

The other thing to stress, is that this water was very very violent - wind direction is cancelled by the rebound effect of the waves in three directions. Wave height was in the 4 to 5' range.

Thanks!

As you kick yourself up on to the ski, rotate your body so that you're facing forward, bringing one leg over the side of the ski and keeping the other leg in the water. You'll end up basically laying flat on the ski with your legs in the water, facing forward. If you've placed yourself correctly in relation to the cockpit, you should be able to rotate your body up and your rear into the seat, with your legs over the side in the water to stabilize yourself. If you're a little behind the cockpit, you can pull yourself forward, keeping your weight low on the boat and your legs in the water until you're in the correct position to rotate.