What to Do If You Get Caught in a Big Open-Water Crossing With Building Chop

Partway through our crossing near Sand Harbor during our five-day paddleboard circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe, my best friend Michael Whalen and I found ourselves in exactly this situation, chop building faster than we'd expected, no easy way to turn back, still a real distance from the safety of shore. Here's what we actually did, and what I'd tell anyone caught in the same position.

Why Turning Back Isn't Always the Right Answer

The instinct when conditions worsen mid-crossing is often to turn around, but that's not automatically the safest choice. Depending on how far into the crossing you already are, continuing forward toward your original destination may actually be shorter and safer than reversing course back through conditions you've already assessed as difficult. We made this calculation in real time near Sand Harbor, determining that continuing forward toward Banzai Rock made more sense than trying to fight back through the same building swell toward our starting point.

The First Thing to Actually Do

Once conditions have clearly shifted beyond what you anticipated, the first priority is stabilizing your own position rather than immediately deciding on a direction. Switching to seated paddling, which both of us did once standing became genuinely difficult, buys you time and control to actually assess the situation clearly rather than making a rushed decision while still fighting to stay upright.

How to Assess Your Actual Options

Once stabilized, honestly evaluate the distance remaining in each direction, the severity of what you're facing, and whether conditions seem to be peaking or still building. We assessed that the swell near Sand Harbor, while difficult, was manageable with seated paddling and wasn't actively worsening beyond what we could handle, which informed our decision to continue rather than attempt a longer, more uncertain return.

What Communication With a Partner Should Look Like in This Moment

If you're paddling with someone else, this is exactly the moment for explicit verbal communication rather than assumption. Michael and I checked in directly with each other about how we were each handling the conditions, rather than assuming the other was fine simply because they hadn't said otherwise. That direct communication matters more in a genuinely difficult moment than it does during calm, easy paddling.

What to Do If Conditions Are Still Worsening

If chop is actively building rather than holding steady, your calculus should shift toward whatever option gets you to any safe stopping point fastest, even if that's not your original destination. Don't commit rigidly to a specific plan if conditions are actively deteriorating, stay open to the shortest safe path forward, whatever that turns out to be given your specific location and the shoreline options available.

What Physical Techniques Actually Help in This Moment

Beyond seated paddling, widening your stance if you remain standing, staying loose through your hips and core rather than rigid, and taking each wave or gust as it comes rather than trying to anticipate too far ahead all contributed to our ability to manage the building chop near Sand Harbor without losing control entirely.

What This Experience Taught Us About Preparation for Future Crossings

Since this experience, we've both become more deliberate about mentally rehearsing this exact scenario before any significant open-water crossing, what would we do if conditions build unexpectedly, which direction would actually be safer, how would we communicate under pressure. That mental rehearsal, done calmly in advance, makes the actual decision-making faster and clearer if you ever find yourself facing this situation for real.

What We Learned From Comparing Notes Afterward

Michael and I didn't experience the building chop identically in the moment, and comparing our separate reads on the situation afterward revealed useful detail about how differently two people can process the same conditions. That comparison reinforced the value of checking in explicitly rather than assuming a shared understanding, since even people paddling side by side through the same water can be experiencing it somewhat differently.

How This Experience Changed Our Approach to Later Crossings

The confidence and specific technique we built from successfully navigating this crossing carried forward into how we approached remaining open-water stretches later in the trip, less anxiety, more trust in our ability to read and respond to changing conditions as they actually developed rather than as we'd feared they might.

What I'd Tell Someone Facing This for the First Time

If you've never experienced conditions building unexpectedly mid-crossing, know that the disorientation of the moment is normal, even for experienced paddlers. What matters is not eliminating that disorientation entirely but working through it methodically, stabilizing first, assessing second, deciding third, rather than letting the anxiety of the moment drive an immediate, unconsidered reaction.

The Bottom Line on Building Chop

Stabilize first, assess honestly, communicate explicitly with any partner, and choose whichever direction offers the shortest path to safety rather than rigidly committing to your original plan regardless of how conditions actually develop.

What This Specific Crossing Taught Me About Fear Versus Caution

There's a meaningful difference between fear, which can cloud judgment, and caution, which sharpens it, and learning to tell the two apart in the middle of a genuinely difficult crossing mattered as much as any specific technique. By staying focused on caution rather than letting fear take over, we made clearer decisions than either of us might have otherwise, even while genuinely uncertain about how the crossing would ultimately go.

What I Hope Someone Takes From This If They're Facing It Right Now

If you're currently in a similar situation, mid-crossing with conditions building faster than expected, breathe, stabilize your position first, and trust that you can work through this methodically even though it feels urgent. The panic of the moment passes faster than it feels like it will once you've actually stabilized your position and started genuinely assessing your real, available options.

What This Crossing Means to Us Looking Back Now

Months later, this specific crossing remains one of the moments Michael and I return to most often when talking about the trip, not because it was the most dangerous, but because it required real teamwork and real trust in each other's judgment under genuine pressure, a combination that's stayed with both of us since.

Before You Close This Tab

What is the safest way to handle a crossing that turns rougher than expected partway through, based on your own read of a situation like ours near Sand Harbor?

Would you instinctively turn back or continue forward if conditions worsened mid-crossing, and how would you actually decide?

How would you communicate with a paddling partner if you found yourselves in genuinely difficult, building conditions together?

Have you mentally rehearsed this exact scenario before your own planned open-water crossings?

Dalton Johnson is a photographer, filmmaker, and brand storyteller based in South Lake Tahoe, California. Over the past decade he has worked with brands including Patagonia, GoPro, Arc'teryx, Four Seasons, Nike, Rivian, and Ford Bronco across all seven continents. He is the creator of the Follow The Journey distribution framework, which has produced over one million organic views per 30-day cycle without paid media. His work includes two published books, an award-winning documentary that aired on PBS, and more than fifty commercial spots directed. He runs Stories by Dalton on Substack, read by more than 34,000 subscribers.