PaddleWise by thread

From: <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com>
subject: [Paddlewise] [Fwd: Re: [CPAKayaker] Another paddling fatality (whitewater)]
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 14:46:40 -0800
Here is what I sent over to cpakayaker based on the heavy traffic on
rec.boats.paddle regarding the accident to Scott Bristow

best.

ralph

BTW, a kayaker also died on Lake Erie over the weekend, wearing a
drysuit but leaving it open according to press reports.  And another in
Moose River in NY.  That also was on rec.boat.paddle
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

attached mail follows:


Joy E. Hecht wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 30 Nov 1998, Greg Hollingsworth wrote:
> 
> > In addition to the fatality on Lake Erie, there was a missing kayaker
> > reported at Great Falls this weekend on the popular stretch between
> > Anglers and Great Falls.  A search was performed and the individual was
> > not found.
> 
> I suppose we're lucky there weren't more.  I was on the Potomac yesterday.
> Saw one pair of paddlers in plastic Dagger boats, wearing running clothes
> under their PFDs.  Also saw four middle-aged men in Acadias, all in
> sweatsuits.  They had PFDs on, and sprayskirts which were not attached.
> The river was dead calm, but definitely not warm.  Good thing a wind
> didn't come up and there were no wakes to speak of.

The kayaker who died on the Potomac over the week end was a well known
contributor to rec.boats.paddle newsgroup.  His name is Scott Bristow
and he was in a C-1 in which he seems to have missed an eddy and gone
over a fall backwards, got caught in some hydraulics or a strainer, his
paddle, helmet and boat emerged but not him.  Knowing the kinds of stuff
he said on the newsgroup he most definitely would have been wearing cold
water protection and his PFD.  Also he was more than up to the challenge
of that particular water.  It is just one of those freak things that can
happen.

Rec.boats.paddle people were actually planning a dinner on Saturday
night somewhere and he, I gather from the messages, was planning to go. 
So r.b.p. people are pretty much upset.

The message traffic over in rec.boats.paddle is full of praise for his
generous contributions and humor in his r.b.p. messages and bereavement
that he is gone.  It is a big shock because many people over in the
newsgroup felt they knew him through that forum.  A case of knowing
someone without having met him.

He had only recently started coming up to the Potomac from his usual
paddling haunts further south (forget which exactly).

If anyone wants to read more details, you can wonder over to r.b.p.  Its
stuff must be archived somewhere.  A search on any web browser with his
name and Great Falls should pick up some of the traffic.

It really has hit people hard because the man seemed so much alive and a
great guy from his message on the newsgroup.

best,

ralph diaz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/
***************************************************************************
From: <JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] [Fwd: Re: [CPAKayaker] Another paddling fatality (whitewater)]
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 17:30:43 EST
In a message dated 11/30/98 2:47:18 PM Eastern Standard Time,
rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com writes:

<< 
 BTW, a kayaker also died on Lake Erie over the weekend, wearing a
 drysuit but leaving it open according to press reports.  >>

Thanks, Ralph,;was this paddler out of Cleveland?  An old Navy friend, Captain
Tom "Rhino" Hancock, died in a kayaking incident there this weekend --- just
learned in an e-mail while I'm sitting here dripping St. Mary's River water
out of my neoprene on my chair mat.  He's being buried at Arlington later this
week.  Not a good week at all, this.

Jack Martin
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/
***************************************************************************

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:53 PDT