RE: [Paddlewise] JFK Jr. and Risk Taking

I received a call from CBS News this morning regarding, of course, sea
kayaking and the fact that they will be focusing their 60 minutes piece
(airing tonight) on JFK Jr.  Initially, they had called to see if I had
video footage of kayaking (which I do although I emphasized it was totally
amateur).  Then they wanted stills of places that he might have been where I
might of had photos of the same location.  Then it was decided that really
they wanted photos and/or footage of HIM kayaking or HIM in a location.  I
asked the correspondent if they had been in touch with people in the DTBH
where he stored some boats and the reply was "yes, there is a whole group of
us working on this assignment".  Apparently they have been in contact with
someone he took a trip with and have photos from.  I later asked (probably
stepping way over the bounderies) if they could air only those photos of him
wearing a PFD.  He checked the pile of photos and said none of them
reflected him wearing anything other than a sprayskirt (as he described it).


So night the program will air, a portion of it reflecting his kayaking.

Debbie Reeves
Sandy Hook, NJ

> ----------
> From: 	rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com[SMTP:rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com]
> Sent: 	Monday, July 19, 1999 11:48 AM
> To: 	paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net; nyckayaker_at_envirolink.org
> Subject: 	[Paddlewise] JFK Jr. and Risk Taking
> 
> In light of the tragedy that seems to have befallen JFK Jr., I would
> like to open up a discussion regarding risk taking and preparededness as
> it applies to sea kayaking.
> 
> As some of you know, JFK Jr. was also a sea kayaker.  And from reviewing
> his approach to this endeavor, one can see some of the elements of
> potential disaster that finally caught up with him in flying a plane.
> 
> Don't get me wrong.  He seemed a nice likable guy, inquisitive and
> approachable.  He was often enough sighted at the Downtown Boathouse
> where he kept two hardshell kayaks.  He was totally unassuming and
> surprisingly turned few heads.  The last time I saw him there was on a
> weekend with a small crowd  of people waiting their turns to use the
> public boats.  He was a good looking guy but didn't turn heads all that
> much (the place is full of great looking guys and gals) and went 
> unrecognized even by the young ladies awaiting their free kayaking
> chance.  At that time, he was told that I knew a lot about folding
> kayaks and came over asking a lot of intelligent questions in a lively
> 10 minute conversation.  He seemed interested in buying one.  I knew
> that in his younger days, his mother had purchased a double Klepper and
> there are a number of photos of he and his cousins fooling around in it.
> And I alluded to that as a reference point (principlely, don't judge
> folding singles by the behavior of folding doubles).
> 
> But on that day, he showed what I consider an overly casual approach to
> kayaking on the water.  He had gone out into the busy summer weekend
> traffic without seeming to turn much to see what was happening around
> him and he was not wearing a PFD (I don't believe he had one aboard
> either), nor carrying a bilge pump or paddle float.
> 
> Earlier a few years back, he had written an article that appeared in the
> Travel Section of the Sunday NY Times.  It was about a muti-day kayaking
> trip he and some buddies took in single hardshells in Scandanavia
> somewhere (I forget which country).  The foto accompanying the article
> showed them all paddling barechested.  My impression was that perhaps
> they may have needed some coldwater clothing and certainly should have
> on their PFDs.  In the article, they ran into a typical novice
> accident.  They started off one day near the end of the trip in calm
> waters behind some protective island only to run into real rough stuff
> once they turned a point of land.  Several of the group went over (as I
> recall it). And they had no idea of how to get overboard paddlers back
> into their boats.  No sense of how to empty a boat, raft up for an
> assisted-rescue, etc.  The best they could come up with is to have the
> individual(s) hang on to the back of the other boats and be towed into
> shore.  They were pretty cold and miserable  and near hypothermic.  I
> forget whether he was one of those in the water or not.
> 
> As I watched him paddling the day we had the talk on folding kayaks, I
> said to myself that this guy is going to get himself hurt one day
> paddling the way he did and that with his celebrity status it would draw
> a lot of unfortunate attention to kayaking in NYC and to the Boathouse
> program.
> 
> So I was not surprised to hear that his plane had gone down, that he had
> flewn in marginal conditions for his skill level and rating.  That he
> was flying totally in the dark in a near moonless night without
> instrument flying knowledge.  And that there was no life vests or a life
> raft aboard that one might prudently carry in a plane that was used
> often over open water.
> 
> Some aviation expert on the news over the weekend recited a ole flying
> adage:  "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots.  There are no
> old, bold pilots."  Some of this may apply to kayaking as well, albeit
> the risks are usually somewhat less catastrophic.
> 
> 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."
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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