Of course, it might be done in another way. Maybe have several stories to tell the group before starting off. About poor Charlie who last year was on one of these trips and he left the group and da da da... ------------------- 25+ years ago I took a ww class in Connecticut. They fitted us out with PFDs & paddles and then before even seeing a canoe, they showed us a film. A bunch of young men and women are partying on a beach near a set of rapids. Two macho types decide to take an open canoe out. They both put on PFDs without fastening them and push out into the fairly shallow rapids. The canoe goes over, one guy ends up upstream of the canoe, the other downstream. The camera focuses on the downstream guy. He stands up in about 2 feet of water. The canoe comes down on him and he goes over backwards. The PFD comes off and his foot gets caught between two rocks. The forces of the river is too strong for him to twist around and get up. The guy has shoulder length hair and the camera pans in on him. He is stretched out under water, his arms over his head and his long hair spread out and flowing down stream. The camera pulls back and that's the end of the film. 25 years later those lessons are still firmly implanted in my head. Seems to me a similar film could prove valuable to sk clubs. You're always going to have novices coming in and people who have learned just a little on their own. A staged film depicting potenital dangers of boat wakes, rip tides, river currents, waves, carelessness, surf, hypothermia, etc. shown to new members may just get their attention. A little CPR scene at the end of the film might give additional room for thought. This would not be a film on what to do, but what not to do and what might result if you do. Viewing the film could be a club requirement and shouldn't offend anyone. An instructor once told me the biggest problem he had with students was many would see an osprey or something. They would watch it until it was directly overhead and they were looking straing up. Then, because they were off balance, they would promptly capsize. Silly? Sure! But if you don't know any better.... (no that didn't happen to me). Another silly one is turning to look backwards without some sort of brace. (no I didn't, but almost, several times). *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Dec 08 1998 - 05:36:24 PST
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