Re: [Paddlewise] How and when to speak up

Ralph and the others all make good suggestions.  For myself, as a white water
paddler, who has paddled an open boat in class 4 water which, until we open
boaters learned to roll our boats back up, was _very_ ill advised, I have had
occasion to both hear advice from people who deemed themselves "superior"
paddlers to me, and from people who were afterwards embarrassed they tried so
hard to dissuade me from paddling a good and challenging piece of river, simply
because I showed up in an open boat on a "decked boat run".

At other times, I found myself looking at people who themselves appeared ill
prepared to safely handle the demands of the river I was preparing to run that
day, and I found myself pondering the best way to approach them, and warn them
without appearing like some self appointed expert, who only wanted to come on
like a smart ass at their expense.  The memory of what it felt like to be on the
receiving end of all that unwanted advice from people who had no idea what my
own level of expertise was helped shape my own approach to the problem.

What I do, and I only suggest it may work for somebody else, is I strike up a
conversation with them, and befriend them, if I can.  I ask them if they or any
member of their party has run the river before, and how they found it, and what
it was like the last time they ran it.  I ask about what kind of water they like
to run, how often they get to play, who's the big maven in their group, or the
fellow who brought them to try this new river, if that's what I am hearing.  I
may even ask for advice about something unrelated to paddling, so as to lend
status to the person I'm asking, and to kind of work a closer bond, as we all
work to prepare for getting on the river.  It doesn't really take as long as it
sounds, but sometimes, I've asked my wife to run the shuttle with our car down
to the takeout, if I'm not at a place where I feel I can speak more freely in
the ten or twenty minutes it takes to collect everybody and set up our boats for
the trip down.

When I have had a chance to make a more accurate assessment of the possible
mismatch between the skills and equipment, including cold weather protection,
required by the river for a safe trip and the skills/knowledge/equipment
presented by the paddler(s) at the riverside that morning, I then decide whether
I think it is appropriate to try to say something.

If I do, I always start out by telling my new friends the same thing,  "I hate
to say this, but I gotta tell you something, Bob.  I'm very worried about you.
(or, your group)"  Then, in as non threatening and un-aggrandizing a manner as
possible, I lay out what I'm looking at that scares me, using whenever possible
what the people themselves have told me about their experience or their
assessment of their own skills.  If it's a matter of the wrong clothing for cold
weather we even try to find somebody who has something more appropriate for them
to wear in our own group, if it's not going to create a problem for the one who
is loaning an extra piece of clothing from his dry bag.  But if the paddler or
group doesn't belong on the river, (something that can happen when there is a
well publicized release on the river), then we put our heads together, and try
to steer them towards a nearby river that is closer to their own skill level.

Most of the times, that's all it took.  As long as we gave them a reasonable
alternative, we usually saw them change their plans.  The only time I couldn't
persuade an ill prepared group to change their plans to run the Lehigh River in
PA on a heavy release was when the self appointed expert in their group was the
one running the shuttle, and he talked the other three adult members into
running the river anyway when he came back, even though they were massively
inexperienced, and running with their kids in the bows of tandem open canoes,
with nothing but dungarees on, in very cold spring temperature water, in
aluminum canoes, without flotation.  They started out before us, and they all
flipped twice in the first two rapids, (we helped them to recover from their
second one, only to learn that it WAS their second disaster) and they took their
boats off the river and carried them a mile and a half back up to the put-in,
thanking us for our concerns and regretting that they hadn't followed our
group's advice in the first place.

Anyway, that's been our experience, if it's of any use to the rest of you...

BTW, Jan and I have sold our house in Great Neck, and are packing for the trip
back to our other home in Goodyear, AZ.
I'm going to miss running the waters around here, but there's a whole new world
out west that I'm looking forward to learning about, and we'll probably get a
place in Durango, CO for the summers.  (It's got a class three river running
right through the middle of town!)

Larry Stone

>  2.  What is the best way of vocalizing the dichotomy between their
> > oblivious paddling approach and a more prudent approach that experienced
> > paddlers tend to adhere to?  I have sometimes thought about things to
> > say  in imaginary scenarios but when confronted with a real situation,
> > the words tend to come out wierd, i.e. doctrinaire sounding,
> > pontificating, scolding, etc.  Give it a try and you will see what I
> > mean.


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