[Paddlewise] Paddling Group Dynamics

Hello all,

There have been some interesting discussions here about group dynamics in 
paddling. One situation I have wanted to discuss in more depth is one of John 
Winter's trips that was very briefly discussed on WaveLength where, because 
of Tim Ingram's uhmm... hysteria, there was no chance of delving further 
into the group dynamics and conducting an objective discussion in that forum.  
Some of you may remember Tim's continual reference to the trip as "John's 
suicide pact" (or something like that).  

Anyhow, I found that group's agreement and decision interesting and worthy of 
further exploration.  Because Tim created an environment on WaveLength which 
rendered this topic so untouchable, I contacted John and asked if he had any 
objections to my reviving the discussion here on PaddleWise as part of an open 
discussion on group dynamics and he has graciously agreed to discuss that trip 
here.  I'm sure I don't have all the facts but basically, as I *think* I 
understand it, the conditions were severe and each member in John's group 
agreed to paddle the conditions and not accept help from or come to the aid 
of any of the others in the group.  I know this sounds simplistic but this is 
all I could gather from comments on WaveLength.  In a sense, each paddler 
agreed that from the launch point, each paddler would be paddling alone.  My 
first question would be why was it important to proceed with the paddle in 
spite of the adverse conditions.  My second concern would be that even though 
I might understand the decision of a skilled paddler to paddle alone in 
adverse conditions realizing the risks and trusting their own skill level,  
I'm not sure I could be convinced that another paddler would stick to such an 
agreement if I ended up in trouble.  I asked John if he might share his story 
here in this forum.  I know he couldn't do that on WaveLength (though he tried) 
but I think it's probably safe here.  Afterall, we *did* constructively cover 
the most controversial topic of sponsons here! :-)

I think there are many different situations in group paddling that could 
present interesting, informative and educational discussions here that others 
have successfully solved while others of us have not quite yet figured the 
solutions and could benefit greatly from the experience and suggestions of
others.  

Cheers,

Jackie
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