WIND SHADOW TRAPS – A PADDLER’S NIGHTMARE

By Moulton Avery

A French paddleboarder was blown 62 miles offshore in the English Channel, where she was lost for 36 hours before being rescued. Three Connecticut kayakers and a paddleboarder were blown over 10 miles offshore into Long Island Sound. Only two survived. A mother and her 8-year-old son in a canoe were blown offshore in Chesapeake Bay, VA, where they capsized and drowned. A 9-year-old girl in a kayak was blown offshore in Lake Michigan where she also capsized and drowned.

Wind Shadow Traps are a frequent cause of these kinds of close calls and fatalities. To avoid them, you need to know how they work. One of the most common wind shadow traps occurs when the wind is blowing offshore – in other words blowing from the shore out onto open water.

It’s a particularly well-camouflaged trap because when you’re standing on shore, it doesn’t feel windy and conditions look calm, with maybe just a few riffles on the water. That’s because obstruction along the shoreline - like trees, cliffs, hills, or buildings - are blocking the wind. The higher the obstructions, the farther offshore the wind shadow extends.

Also, any waves visible in the distance look smaller than they actually are, and any whitecaps are harder to spot because the waves are breaking away from your viewpoint.

But as soon as you drift or paddle across that wind shadow line, the wind hits you – and if you can’t turn around and paddle back against it, you’re going to be blown offshore into increasingly rougher water. Here’s a classic incident 5 from our website.

Interested in hearing about any personal situations where wind shadows created a difficult situation for you or your paddling group.