[Paddlewise] Scott Bristow accident report from r.b.p

David Mackintosh fallZboater_at_hotmail.com posted:
-------------------
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Scott Bristow lost at Great Falls, Maryland
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 04:48:06 GMT

This Saturday morning, November 28th, at about 11:15am, we lost Scott Bristow
at Great Falls, Maryland.

I only wish this was some sort of joke, as Scott and I often shared over the
newsgroup, through private e-mails, or during one of several river trips over
the last two years. I know there will be many questions, so below is my
account of what happened over the last two days.

Scott, Julie Keller, and Joe Day had driven up from Atlanta, and after
paddling the New River on Thanksgiving, met me at work on Friday.  I showed
them around the Model Basin, and we went to lunch at my favorite spot in
Bethesda.  After that, we drove to the park at Great Falls, Maryland, and
carried our three kayaks, and Julie's open boat, down to the Sandy Beach
put-in.  We all paddled and portaged up to the base of the Falls and got some
good play-time in at the wave at the base of Horseshoe.  Scott, Joe, and I
carried up to the top of Pummel, the first drop on the Maryland side, while
Julie got in position to take some photos.  While carrying, we discussed the
lines through each of the drops.  I believe I made three runs of Pummel,
Scott two, and Joe one.  We then all got out to take a another look at
Z-Turn, and had decent runs.  We got out of our boats again on the river left
side above Horseshoe to scout this drop a second time, and all had good run
of the "Hairy Ferry" line from river left to right above Horseshoe.  After
surfing some more, we packed it up and drove out to my place in Germantown
for dinner, boating videos, and sleep.

This morning at 10am we met another friend (an experienced Falls-runner) in
the parking lot. Our plan was for the four of us in kayaks to put in above
the Falls and for Julie to again put in at Sandy Beach to paddle upstream and
take some additional photos.  We all ran the top drop (Pummel) again, and
eddied out on the river right above Z-Turn.

After making sure everyone remembered the line, we started down one at a
time. The first three of us ran through the standard line and eddied out on
river left above Horseshoe.  We were all watching for Scott to come through
Z-Turn but instead saw him come backwards through Charlie's Hole.  I've heard
of this happening to several boaters that were a bit too far right on the
approach to Z- Turn.  The first turn, to the left, is made in the pillow on
the upstream side of the large rock that splits Z-Turn from Charlie's.	It is
possible to make the turn but still get pushed to the right, backwards,
through Charlie's.  At the base of this drop the water funnels down through a
slot that necks down to about 7' wide.	The hole is deep and powerful, but
tends to flush swimmers.  I have run this slot intensionally at a slightly
lower water level in the past. Scott and his boat got surfed and I think he
rolled up a couple of times, but was unable to push himself downstream.  I
saw that a couple of other boaters were already on the rocks next to the
hole, and Joe was paddling towards the eddy just below. I didn't know if
anyone was downstream to recover gear, so I quickly paddled through
Horseshoe. Once there, I found several boaters surfing, so I hopped out and
ran back up the rocks with my throw-rope. In that time, Scott's boat, paddle,
and helmet exited the hole and were retrieved, but there was no sign of him. 
I threw the bag into the hole several times and felt it pulled down maybe 20
feet before it would flush down-stream.  Next we tied the rope to the back of
another boater's PFD and lowered him into the pot-hole right next to
Charlie's.  About 5 feet underwater he could feel (with his feet) quite a bit
of suction pulling towards the hole.  We also tried probing with paddles
everywhere in the area that we could reach without being in great danger
ourselves. We could feel only current and rocks.

After about an hour, the rescue squad personnel directed us to stop our
search there, so we continued searching downstream.  It was very hard to
leave the river this day, but there was nothing more we felt we could do. 
After we were interviewed by the park and county police, Julie called Scott's
parents in Georgia to give them the terrible news.  We had all planned to
meet other local RBPers for dinner at 6:30 this evening and it was too late
to get the word out so we did drive to the restaurant to again have to relate
the news. From there, we went to the airport to pick up Scott's parents and
take them to a local hotel.  Tomorrow morning we will continue to search.

We are all still somewhat in shock over this incident, and I don't know yet
how this will affect me in the future.	This day was like any other day on
the river; we all felt we were within our limits, and we had taken normal
precautions.  There are so many "what ifs," but although I wish I could turn
back the clock, I don't know what we could have done differently.  We will
miss you, Scott.

David Mackintosh
fallZboater_at_hotmail.com

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