Weekend Westerly

[Slappy]

what do you think brought on the nausea, was hypothermia kicking in?

So this has happened to me 3 other times over the last 10 years or so:
- Snowshoeing up a mountain
- Hiking up from Wreck Beach after a winter surf session
- On a windy / wavy SUP session where I misjudged times and had to really boot it to try and make an appointment

The two on land weren't bad and just required sitting down for 15-20 minutes. The time it happened to me on the SUP was very similar to this latest incident. I think the combo of the syncope induced nasea mixed with the wave motion (it was still very windy and wavy during my swim in yesterday) makes it so I can't recover very well because of perpetual nasea from the waves once I start to feel sick. For the SUP case I was able to just lay on my board and thankfully the wind was in a decent direction as it took about 45 minutes for me to recover and be able to paddle again.

I'm not sure if it's low blood sugar or low electrolytes but I'm going to start carrying those gels that runners carry and make sure I eat 1-2 of them on my sessions if they go over 2 hours.

I also have very low blood pressure all the time, and I suffered a full Vasovagal syncope (not exercise related in any way) about 5 years ago. That was not fun. I got a full 24h ECG after that and all showed normal.

I will start carrying a whistle as well but I'm pretty sure the whistle wouldn't have been much help until the wind died down (which wasn't until around 7:30 PM). Once it was calm it would be very helpful though, especially so in the dark.

While my floatation vest is black, it has 3M reflective piping and strips on the shoulders and back. A red beanie would have been easier to spot but due to my condition I was just kind of laying face down on my board and there was constant 2 foot chop so it still would have been very hard to see.

By far the best thing I could have done for visibility would have been to come off my board and then hold it by the tail underwater such that the top 50% of the board was sticking straight up. Again though, I wasn't really in a state to manage that for long, my board was like a little life raft pillow for my head.

My wife wants to buy me an apple watch, but the only one that has any business being out there is the new Ultra model and it's $1000 and freakin' giant.

Maybe I should just take up wingfoiling instead of kite foiling

[BigD]

Ooof. I'm always worried about breaking down. I had a long swim in at Ross Bay in Victoria in December when my mast broke a long long time ago and luckily I wasn't past clover point and the current wasn't too strong. Cops and ambulance were waiting for me but I was OK. Helped that I was in my 20s. It's a big ocean.

Now I always carry my cell phone in a waterproof pouch. I barely even notice it, just tuck it into the front of my wetsuit: I also recently got a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro which connects to my Android phone so I can call or text through my watch just using my voice "Hey Google, call Jericho rescue!". If you had the LTE version (a bit more $$ and a monthly fee to cell provider) it connects directly to the cell network, you wouldn't even need your phone with you. FYI bluetooth doesn't work underwater so you have to be on your board or floating on your back if using your phone!.

On Monday a buddy called while I was foiling and I was able to answer and talk to him through my wrist while wind foiling haha " hold on dude I have to jibe!".

Stay safe out there kids!

Waterproof case $12

[SplitCoast]

Regular Apple Watch is fine as long as you wear it UNDER your wetsuit.

[Slappy]

Looks like there are some reasonable dive cases for the cheapo apple watches, I wonder if you can still make voice calls through those cases though.

[john m]

Certain providers like koodo don’t support apple watch independent of the phone. Would have to change to telus, twice the price

[JonathanP]

Waterproof Bluetooth speaker/mic or super basic Bluetooth watch. Pair with a phone in a soft waterproof case and stuff in your wetsuit on a string around your neck is all you really need. Use the Bluetooth for calls or pull out the phone if you need.

[shmish]

You can also pair a phone with this: https://www.mec.ca/en/product/6013-634/ ... mmunicator

It also works sending messages outside of cell coverage if you want to use it backpacking etc, but that requires a subscription service.