Sea States for Sea Kayakers

Weather forecasts and BCU awards make reference to sea states. Calum McKerral has produced a video guide to sea states as seen from a sea kayaker's perspective. I interviewed Calum to turn this into a video podcast. Download the handy PDF guide at SeaKayakPodcasts.com

[@calumpiober1535]

Very useful for me as a beginner. It lets me assess what I can cope with so that I can better inform paddle leaders. Well done, many thanks!!

[@jacqui7362]

Fabulous information thanks for making & sharing 🎉

[@judesanchezjr6929]

This is just brilliant! Thank you for making this video well done.

[@mairnealachamu]

Good idea, and a good resource. I feel though that there was a big jump from State 2 to State 3 and not much of a jump from State 3 to State 4. There seemed almost as many white horses in State 3 as there was in State 4, except there was a slightly larger swell. State 3 looked more like a 3.5 to be fair.

[@explorermike19]

Thank you! this is EXACTLY the video I was looking for.

[@jamescornes731]

Very useful Calum thanks.

[@rongosswiller6022]

It's great to attempt to put numbers to conditions but what I see here is a little misleading and incomplete. Level 3 in this video has small waves that are cresting and the seas are quite confused (multiple waves from different directions.) These push your boat around keeping you from travelling straight. Level four has slightly bigger swell but are simple rollers from one direction, a much simpler condition to paddle, yet a higher number. What really determines doable paddling conditions is the beach break you will be entering the ocean from in the first place, and landing. Being out in the water is great, but can you actually get there? What does the shoreline look like-rocks distributed in the off shore, gravel/sand beach or rocky cliffs. As kross mentioned frequency is very important. It can make or break getting off the beach. The swell may be medium height but could develop into monster sized waves at the beach. Nordkapps are wonderful sea kayaks...

[@charles-mr4oz]

I was just going to ask who would rather paddle in the 4 shown here than the 3 but you already answered in more detail

[@mairnealachamu]

That's a good point Ron, but there are certainly exceptions. You could be paddling from a sheltered cove to another sheltered cove, but along the way you might be passing a cliff where you will encounter terrible clapotis. The conditions at the cliff will be the limiting factor, not the put in or get out conditions. Likewise passing a headland or other exposed location.

[@kyaker63]

Well done-thank you!

[@chris-terrell-liveactive]

Thank you, that's very useful. Bookmarked for reference. Direction of travel in relation to swells and choppiness also mitigate or magnify the effects. having some clips a bit shorter would be helpful.

[@boofit1961]

Good job, very useful thanks

[@kross1957]

This classification, as described in the video, seems to only consider wave/swell height, and that's just half of the story. The other is wave/swell interval. A 6-footer (2 meters) at 15 seconds is hardly noticeable. A 3-footer (1 meter) at 4 seconds is choppy as hell. If this system can't allow for that, it is not very useful.

[@mairnealachamu]

Absolutely Ross. Wave period is a crucial consideration. I prefer to use Hs rather than Douglas or other systems. A Hs of 1m with a 5 second period is a totally different animal to a Hs of 1m with a 10 second period.

[@sme4969]

good vid to give people a rough guide to what to expect.. like others have said it also depends on other factors like wind, sea bed, time between waves, currents etc... also like others have said i would ratyher paddle the 4 than the 3 in your vid.. should of filmed the same area so the seabed would be same in all sea states sandy areas will have different state to a rocky area etc i live in plymouth so the sound has lots of different sea states with in the areas, this is in a force 3, as you will see in the vid below the sea states changed due to the areas passed over, the sea states according to your vid was 1-2, 3 rocky area, then flattened again too 1 in a rock and sandy bay, this was all in a 2 mile stretch of water.. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqHHlnx3dt9lq7s

[@Roselder]

Video is to long, I don't have time to finish watching

[@44thenazz]

It's "too" long. Too means "also", you smoked too much pot in high school. You worthless hippie!