[Paddlewise] River Rude was "Canoeist on Trial for Cursing"

> A canoeist who ended up in the river allegedly uttered a lengthy and colorful 
> string of expletives, which got him in trouble with the law.  
> 
> I have doubts about the story myself.  Maybe a kayaker would do this, but 
> certainly not a canoeist.  Anyway, check out

Said with tongue in cheek, I'm sure :-) 

I saw one of the interviews with him on TV.  Seems there were several
witnesses who said it was a pretty ugly scene.   

> http://www.abcnews.go.com/go/sections/us/DailyNews/canoe990610.html

I note the article mentions that numerous complaints from property and
business owners about drunken and rowdy boaters had caused the
county sheriffs to begin patrolling the river.  That's too bad it 
reached that point.

When I first started paddling, I was running rivers in central
Texas.  We had a two-day paddle with a very large group including two
guys that showed up with their canoes and sporting koosies tied around 
their necks.  It was 8:00 a.m. and it was quite obvious they had already 
downed a few.  The one with the loud and foul mouth wanted to paddle
at the front of the group so we could see how a "real" pro paddles.

Some of the stuff we were running that day was class three as it was 
a high-water year (normally class two stuff).  I was pretty new at this.  
The two party-guys had never paddled with our club before and assumed 
we were going to do what they normally did, party down the river with 
a case of beer that they planned on emptying by the end of the run.

The loud-mouth paddler finally ended up wiping out at a class three drop 
and cursed at his boat and everyone who tried to help.  To the people 
standing on the banks observing and who were not part of our group, 
I'm sure his tantrum made quite an impression.  He was threatening
anyone that touched him or his boat.

I think they should have let him drown, myself, but I wasn't in
charge... :-)   The trip leader ignored his cursing and threats and 
retrieved him and his boat from the water, finally telling him he
should sit the rest of the day out.

This scene was new for our club and it launched a long debate about 
who was allowed to paddle with us and what to do about intoxicated
paddlers that insisted on coming along (which is when we changed from
the title "trip leaders" to "trip coordinators").  Settling in by the 
fire in the evening with some brews or wine at the end of a long day's 
run was accepted by everyone.  But an incompetent and intoxicated boater 
during the run was new.   I think eventually peer pressure (or boredom) 
caused the two to move on to a different type of crowd :-)

Cheers,

Jackie

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