[Paddlewise] judgement

Some time ago I gathered together stories of paddling epics when things had
gone wrong. I interviewed the paddlers to get their story and let them
identify where they had messed up. It was quite revealing and certainly
reinforces the earlier comments that paddlers are keen to discusss the
technical aspects and gear rather than weather and navigation skills for
example.
There were few instances of gear failure. Often paddlers blamed the weather
department for  "getting it wrong" when had they perhaps had more knowledge
of clouds etc then they might have worked out what was happening. It is of
interest that many sea kayak books have for instance been quite light
weight on weather stuff in the past.
Other problem areas was that paddlers did not consider the impact of
outside factors such as getting back  to work/home in time or completing
the expedition goals and therefore found themselves overstretched on the
Sunday having to get back for work.
Failure to recognise the effect of wind featured on coastal and offshore
incidents. Again more weather knowledge would have helped.
Human error- in some cases all the paddlers trusted the leader. Fine until
the leader makes a mess of the navigation and no one notices or double
checks it.
Lack of experience- featured but often in the sense of one person holding
the group back. Closer study indicated that in many cases had the leader
asked a few more questions then they might have rethought about the
suitability of that person going on the paddle or else might have altered
the trip to take into account that persons level of ability. There was one
or two instances where I got the distinct feeling that a les experienced
paddler was encouraged to go along just to bolster up numbers. 
Communication- some strong willed paddlers can have an adverse effect. One
story recounted how a paddler was so set on getting to the island that it
took the other paddlers to turn around and go back before he acepted that
it really was not feasible due to the currents.
Incidently these stories were gathered from paddlers with five years or
more experience. Obviously some date back to their early days. But if
experienced paddlers are getting these problems at times then its likely
less experienced paddlers will also be getting the same things. The above
is only a very short synopsis.
What I do with all this is to present the scenarios to paddlers at our
symposium. Usually I get shreaks of " this is just the sort of thing we
have seen happen".
At our Symposium in Jersey (23-29 May) we have in the past done stuff on
weather and navigation which are well attended so I think people will
attend the less exciting stuff and not all go for the rescue clinics etc. 
This year our club has run a navigation and weather evening class with the
aim of getting people used to the idea of trip planning. It has gone well
and has encouraged more paddlers to get out and plan trips.
We also have been running clinics on our Tuesday night sessions daling with
rescue and other paddling skills having found that while you can learn a
lot out on a club paddle it is good to spend some dedicated time doing
towing,rescues,and other skills..But then we are lucky to have a club with
150 members and all live no more than 40 minutes drive away.
For any club its worth considering running a mini symposium style event to
cover some of the issues of safety and techniques.People do seem keen to
take part and learn and the advantage of club members getting together to
share skills is that we have found people get lots of hands on practice as
well with some newer paddlers getting taken under the wing of 'older
hands'. 
 Please excuse if some of this is old chatter, but I've just got back from
a great weekend paddling with some French Paddlers in St Malo and havent
had time to read all the latest stuff.


 



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