Something that keeps coming up - how to avoid being seen by people on shore who call in.
Seems pretty crazy how consistent this is, and how dangerous it is to deliberately avoid lumo colours, which are consistently the key factor in people being saved when they do call in a rescue - (you are entirely invisible in 20kn)
On all days, but especially on wavy days, the best way for the safety boater (and any boater for that matter) to see you is if you’re wearing a brightly colored (orange or yellow) shirt or life jacket…preferably both. A yellow hat helps a little, but really it’s too small do to much good by itself. And, not surprisingly, a white surf ski looks exactly like a whitecap.
The only surf skiers you could see at all from any distance were the ones wearing those bright orange shirts we received last year at the Gorge race. And you could see them for a long, long, long way. It was stunning how well those shirts stood out. And it was no small comfort amongst all those sailboats boater_visibility [Surfski Knowledge Base] .
This is a tricky one, my take on this is much the same, too much high vis can be a problem for false alarms.
However, there is one place where I think it could save your life - the deck of your board.
Because our boards are flat, it’s less likely to be visible from the beach, but from above it will be the difference between life and death, as the tape lights up search cameras (last resort stuff, and if you’re still attached to the board, which itself is absolutely the single most important safety consideration).
I have been placing a few 3m squares on the nose of my boards. I carry a signalling mirror but that is mostly of the nerd consideration.
Offshore surfskis now ship with high visibility reflective decals for the same reason
