Re: [Paddlewise] Kayaking safety

On Tue, May 19, 1998 at 09:26:04AM -0700, rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com wrote:
> With all due respect to your valuable insights on whitewater paddling,
> the comments that have been coming from other keen observers of this
> branch of kayaking have been seeing a different phenomenon.  People like
> Charlie Walbridge and others (I forget their names) have been saying
> that whitewater paddlers are coming up fast because of gear and training
> and with that taking greater risks in running more difficult waters. 
> That many people are moving up the risk ladder and not just the extreme
> experts.

Oh, you (and Charlie, who's a neighbor of mine) are completely right.

I think there are two simultaneous phenonema at work here.  At the
risk of oversimplifying, let me try to divide the people that I know
into two groups -- with the caveat that this really is an oversimplication
and that the same people sometimes belong to both groups at once.

Group A: Take their time to learn skills at each level that they
progress through.  Master rivers of class N before spending a lot of
time on class N+1.  Work hard on developing fundamental soundness
in basic techniques like ferrying, eddy turns, peel outs, rolling, river
reading, etc.  Very often recognize a personal "ceiling" which they
won't try to go beyond, and are likely to walk a rapid/skip a run
if they feel it's beyond their ability.

Group B: Tend to erroneously conclude that because they made it down
a river, that they're mastered it and can move on.  Often tackle
rivers of class N+1, N+2 while not yet able to make the hard moves
on rivers of class N.  May be missing some fundamental skills but
may have some advanced skills (e.q. squirting).  Tend not to walk *anything*.
Don't understand yet that there is a limit to what their skill
and equipment will allow them to do *even if they don't know what it is*.


Group B paddlers *used* to get knocked into group A early and often 
by the School of Hard Knocks.  However, incredible advances in boat
design combined with not-quite-so-dramatic advances in techniques
and methods of teaching those techniques have enabled them to progress
quite far before this happens -- *if* it happens.

In other words, group B paddlers used to get the _at_#*! knocked out of
them on class III runs and would either (a) go back and learn (b) quit
the sport or (c) in a few cases, continue to get the _at_#*! knocked out
of them.  However, they now tend to make it all the way to class V or
so before this starts to happen to them, at which point some of them
end up dead, because a class V butt-kicking can be lethal, while
a class III one is usually just embarrassing and annoying.

I strongly feel that none of this is a reason to hold back on
instruction: but I equally strongly feel that basics need to
be emphasized and re-emphasized before people are taught more
advanced skills.  Let's face it, practicing squirts is a lot more
fun than practicing the forward stroke.  But the latter is the one
that counts when you *must* make it to a certain spot in a rapid or
face consequences.  But it's difficult for instructors to keep the
focus on fundamentals when students are watching other boaters have
big fun doing splats and mystery moves and other stunts.

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk_at_gsp.org
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