RE: [Paddlewise] ACA and Safety

Yes - I was on the Washington State Parks Safety Council representing
manually powered boats for three years. Each year the set of statistics
on boating accidents would come out and someone would note that
unregisterd boats under around 20' were showing increased deaths. This
would include canoes, kayaks and rafts. There were always a couple of
people who wanted to register them so that they would show up more often 
in the statistics as they felt alot of it wasn't reported. We managed to 
keep the state out of governing rafting totally, and while they were
setting standards for rafting we kept the kayaks out of that. Ironically 
when Rich Weiss died on the White Salmon he was tabulated as a WA
statistic. One fellow on the council always wants to regulate whitewater 
and constantly sites the recklessness of paddlers who are always going
under logs. I used to stand up and try to point to the ACA or retail
shops who were educating the public from their end.

So...

> be a smarta**, I'm just failing to see the connection. Is it so they can get
> a handle on how many canoes/kayaks are out there so they can put the
> accident rates in perspective?
> 
> Confused,
> 
> Woody
> 

Writing an article?


Andree Hurley
Hurley Design Communications - ICQ# 27469637
On-line Editor - http://www.canoekayak.com
Other Kayaking - http://www.onwatersports.com
Web Sites for Specialty Businesses -  http://www.viewit.com/HDC/


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