Paddle park

A paddle park on the foredeck may be to hold the paddle temporarily while you do something else, like drink some water. These take the form of a simple hook or cleat around which you hook the chart bungie. This holds the paddle shaft. Some kayaks are made with a channel molded into the foredeck to hold the paddle shaft in place.

An alternative to a paddle park is a paddle leash.

BCU-trained paddlers will often secure their paddles so the take-apart ferrule is closer to the bow or stern with the blades pointed toward the cockpit. Without some sort of pipe riser under the farther park, it is difficult to stow the paddle while underway.

With a knot or bead on the farther park, it is easier to stow the blades of a spare paddle, although this may put them in a more vulnerable position of possibly being washed out by a large breaking wave.

Paddlefloat outrigger parks rigged on the back deck may assist weaker or novice paddlers in performing the paddle float self rescue. With practice, it is just as easy to clamp together both the back of the coaming and the paddle shaft to perform this rescue. When the rescue is completed, not having to remove the paddle from under the paddlefloat outrigger park is a great convenience and makes a capsize caused by turning around to unstow the paddle less likely.

There are some good alternatives to bungie-based outrigger parks. Seaward Kayaks makes some based on webbing that are much more secure and provide for a quick release when the rescue is complete. There are many other systems that can be added to a kayak that provide similar functions. Doug Lloyd wrote a good article on these in the October, 1999 issue of Sea Kayaker Magazine (issue no. 72).