Had not planned to publish the information I've collected so far since it's still mostly preliminary. Then I went out at lunchtime and ate a couple of half smokes on a bench in front of my office in Crystal City and got overheated with my jacket on --- and that made me think a little more. This is time-sensitive stuff. The information I have is from a collection of knowledgeable sources including press contacts and government agencies in Ohio who are not yet on record, and I can't cite them; your call on how you take that, but they're on site, they're working the case, and they provided information off the record. When the DNR and the Coroner issue their final reports --- and that could take up to six weeks ---, I'll receive them and will pass along any variance to this early report. Thanks also to Chuck Sutherland and to Neil Samos for other background info. The essence of the incident is that Captain Tom "Rhino" Hancock, USN (Ret.) died on Lake Erie on Saturday in a sea kayaking accident that could have easily been prevented. He was a friend of mine, and what we in the Navy call a "shipmate" --- somebody who really matters to you. Somebody who'd take care of you if you needed it, and somebody you'd take care of if he needed it. He was not a paddling buddy, though, and, in fact, I didn't know he was a kayaker at all. I knew him from his devotion to aviation maintenance issues, and the way he went about championing important programs, trying to make the sailors's life on the deckplate a little easier and better. ______________ We sea kayakers are an independent lot. It's sometimes hard for outside professionals who work closely with issues of individual and organizational behavior to understand how sea kayakers ever get as organized as we do. We look at individual and group responsibilty in ways different from most --- just look at our recent PaddleWise discussion on car racks and a much earlier discussion on the responsibility of the individual in a group when the going gets rough! We tend to advocate individual rights, and we live with the fact that our personal choices in cold water gear, for example, are just that --- they're personal choices, and if we want to wear neoprene shorts and a vest in cold conditions and take the chance that we won't survive a long swim because we think it unlikely that we'll be forced to do one, so be it. Rhino Hancock went out in a sea kayak --- probably a yellow Sea Lion or a decked boat similar to a Sea Lion, from TV reports --- on Saturday with a plan to paddle out, probably from the local state park, to the Cleveland city water intake "crib" about four miles offshore in Lake Erie. At one time, this was a manned structural platform, and press contacts indicate that it's something of a local curiousity. Surface air temp was about 45 degrees F., as was the surface water temp, although other reports indicated that the air warmed to the 50s and to the 60s later in the day. Wind was out of the southwest --- off shore --- at about 15 kts, and the seas were light, about 1.5 feet. Tom Hancock was wearing a drysuit and a PFD; when his body was found later in the day, he was floating with his face out of the water, and his drysuit was not zipped fully. According to professional preliminary reports, subject to toxicology review, he died of hypothermia, and not of drowning. We can theorize about a lot of things, and we can speculate on the wisdom of his trip, but we can learn one hard lesson: had he had his drysuit zipped up --- and there's no indication as to when he opened it or that he ever zipped it up or even that he knew it wasn't fully zipped ---, he might well have survived the incident. A sound drysuit with adequate insulation underneath would have provided him time to attract attention or to affect a self rescue. A flooded drysuit provided virtually no thermal protection from the start, and, with the air and water temperatures at the levels reported and a fresh wind providing evaporative cooling, he probably had little time left when he went in. Did he expect to swim that day? Probably not. Did he leave the park figuring he was going to face a survival situation? Not likely. But it turned into one for him, and he did not beat the odds. ______________________ Please feel free to crosspost this to other kayaking lists --- there's no pride of authorship here, and no copyrights implied. We can theorize all we want about cold water paddling and its requirements --- with this warm December weather in the northeast, we have to go beyond the theory when we paddle, and accept the fact that how we actually prepare for paddling and our attention to detail can influence whether or not we come back. Jack "Joq" 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/ ***************************************************************************
JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com wrote: > <MAJOR SNIPPING> > Rhino Hancock went out in a sea kayak --- probably a yellow Sea Lion or a > decked boat similar to a Sea Lion, from TV reports --- on Saturday with a plan > to paddle out, probably from the local state park, to the Cleveland city water > intake "crib" about four miles offshore in Lake Erie. At one time, this was a > manned structural platform, and press contacts indicate that it's something of > a local curiousity. Surface air temp was about 45 degrees F., as was the > surface water temp, although other reports indicated that the air warmed to > the 50s and to the 60s later in the day. Wind was out of the southwest --- > off shore --- at about 15 kts, and the seas were light, about 1.5 feet. Tom > Hancock was wearing a drysuit and a PFD; when his body was found later in the > day, he was floating with his face out of the water, and his drysuit was not > zipped fully. According to professional preliminary reports, subject to > toxicology review, he died of hypothermia, and not of drowning. > I think this brings home once again that equipment if not used the way it is intended to be used won't work and you might as well not even have it. A couple of examples: --The opened zipper on a dry suit reminds me of discussions I have seen about individuals, who unhappy about the choking feeling of the neck gaskets, opt to have a neck ring that keeps the neck open for venting. The idea is that they will take the ring off when things get hairy. --Or individuals who will wear a PFD but leave the zipper open because they are hot; the intention is to zip up if something goes wrong. I remember when kayaking dry suits were first hitting the market about a dozen years ago that there was great concern voiced among wet suit aficionados that if a dry suit tore your goose would be cooked (better said: frozen). It was an early argument used against dry suits. By and large, dry suits have proven to be tough enough and passed the test of time. But there was some earlier ones that were quite fragile, albeit flexible as a dress shirt; at least one person who wore this type put on regular clothing over it...fatigue pants and a shirt...in order to protect the dry suit fabric. I almost asked him to leave a cold water trip until I noticed the ankle gasket peaking out of the bottom of his street pants leg. Or those cheaper dry suits that Stohlquist sold for awhile that did not have a waterproof zipper but rather a normal zipper and a velcoed over flap that you rolled over a turn. Someone had one of those zippers burst open while winter surfing in Rhode Island. It was quite a scare and chilling experience. Well what does happen if a zipper fails on you or you can't get it fully closed or you do tear a slit in your dry suit? It doesn't take much imagination to envision tearing the suit on a deck fixture or if overboard, snag and tear the suit on a rudder cable or rudder fitting or pushed against some piling tearing the material on a nasty nail or bolt? In essence, a dry suit is a precarious device like a space suit for orbiting astronauts outside their ship that depends totally on its seal. A puncture turns a safe environment into a deadly environment. 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/ ***************************************************************************
Just some additional thoughts on the problem a flooded dry suit would represent in addition to the hypothermic threat. A suit full of water would greatly hinder re-entry if you are out of your boat. Your movements while in the water wouldn't be too hampered since water in water (water in your suit and your suit in the water) balances out. But once you tried to raise up on your back deck or use a paddle float, your legs and trunk would weigh what seems a ton; you might have trouble raising your arms as well although the water might rush down into the rest of the suit as you starting lifting an arm. I haven't seen this with a dry suit but in other similar situations. I once had to rescue a guy who was wearing a pair of paddling pants. The neoprene ankle cuffs were tight enough to keep a mass amount of water in his pants legs. I hadn't noticed this and he was having an inordinate amount of difficulty. Later, when we got to shore, he released the velcro on the pants cuffs and a surprising amount of water poured out. In addition to the Stohlquist cheap zipper dry suit, the company also at one point offered what was termed a semi-dry suit. It looked like a regular dry suit except all the gaskets were just neoprene (the neck may not have had neoprene to allow use of a hood) and the zipper was one of those cheaper non-waterproof zippers with a rollover closure. A friend practicing with it on one day found to her dismay that it flooded unbearably and hindered her practice re-entries. She opted to just cut off the leg neoprene and treated the whole thing like a waterproof set of coveralls after that. I am not certain what one would do if confronted with a flooded dry suit where latex gaskets can't be just opened as might velcroed neoprene ones. Cutting the ankle latex gaskets would be difficult because of how it clings to one's leg bottom. Probably cluster some of the dry suit material somewhere below the knee and make a cut, I suppose, for each pant leg. It would ruin an expensive suit but saving your life would be worth it. While this is strictly conjecture, it may be that Rhino Hancock had a flooded suit and could not do a self-rescue because of the water weight aside from whatever degree of hypothermia was setting in. 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/ ***************************************************************************
it clings to one's leg bottom. Probably cluster some of the dry suit material somewhere below the knee and make a cut, I suppose, for each pant leg. It would ruin an expensive suit but saving your life would be worth it. > If you made a cut down around the ankle and took another swim, would garvity hold water entering the cut down around the ankle or would it rise to fill the dry suit? > Aren't there Gortex repair kits for the field? I don't recall having seen/heard about them before. I suppose if the suit was dry, duct tape inside/outside the cut might do the job for a while. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Sisler, Clyde wrote: > > > it clings to one's leg bottom. Probably cluster some of the dry suit > > material somewhere below the knee and make a cut, I suppose, for each > > pant leg. It would ruin an expensive suit but saving your life would be > > worth it. > > > If you made a cut down around the ankle and took another swim, would > garvity hold water entering the cut down around the ankle or would it rise > to fill the dry suit? The purpose of taking such a drastic action as cutting into your dry suit is to make certain that you won't have water flooding the suit's pants legs. The cut assures you that, as you try to climb back on or into your kayak, water will drain out rather than remain in the legs portion to hinder your movements. I have no idea how much water would re-enter through the slit you have made if you are swimming again. Probably not all that much as water pressure against the leg would make the dry suit material cling to you. While on the subject again, I didn't say anything about water that would get into the sleeves. Some would depending on how water has gotten into your dry suit (either through an open zipper or a neck ring holding out the latex from you neck). If you got a lot of water into your jacket sleeves and it could not drain out through the wrists because of the latex gaskets there, you might be in a real pickle. As you try to raise your arm out of the water, your tight PFD would slow the movement of the water from the sleeves to the rest of the suit. Although I don't know this personally, I do recall some discussions about 8 years ago involving someone with a dry top who somehow got water in through the neck. It filled his sleeves and the PFD acted as I described above making it difficult for him to raise his arms in a self-rescue. Again, I want to re-focus back on the point here: a dry suit is only as good as its insulation and only so long as it is completely sealed. If the dry suit doesn't have adequate insulation it won't work. If for whatever reason (torn material, neck rings, open zipper) water gets in, your flooded dry suit becomes a death suit not only because of hypothermia but also perhaps more importantly because of the hinderance a water-filled dry suit would present to getting back up into your boat. I raise it because dry suits are seen as a panacea. They are BUT with warm weather, people may be tempted (with tragic results as we have seen in Lake Erie) to keep the zipper partly open or to not have adequate layering underneath. 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/ ***************************************************************************
I think this brings home once again that equipment if not used the way it is intended to be used won't work and you might as well not even have it. A couple of examples: > The admonishment doesn't just apply to dry suits in cold weather either. This past summer I took a swim in 50-55F water with a farmer john (and PFD) that was rolled down to the waist. It took about 5 minutes to get out of some surging surf and an hour and a half to warm up again while bundled in some dry winter clothes and pacing back and forth on a small beach. Why was the wetsuit down around my waist? Does familiarity breed contempt? Do some of us have to learn the hard way? I dunno. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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