Re: [Paddlewise] Baywatch, no kidding!!!

Responding to Jack Martin "
I'm reading a book that is starting to relate to the PaddleWise discussion of 
"experience": Martin Dugard's "Knockdown" --- the story of the 1998 
Sydney-Hobart sailing race in which just about anything that could go wrong 
did.  And it's all about risk management, along with the bluewater sailing 
ethic, Aussie machoism and other interesting dynamics.  Vaguely reminiscent 
of Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm", a much better written book and the 
reconstruction of the collision of three big storms off the Grand Banks a few 
years back.  "

I read "Knockdown" as well and agree with your thoughts. More in that 
direction are....

Great books about leadership(1), lack of leadership(2) just bad luck(3) and 
cascading small wrong decisions eventually lead to death(4) ... try

1) "Endurance", the classic of Shackelton (spelling?) epic on the ice 1914 
ish. Everything that could go wrong does but through bullheaded leadership 
they all survive 18 months in the South Pole. A MUST READ.
2) "The Donner Party" (the 1930 ish version not one of the newer ones) of 
settlers getting trapped in what became Donners Pass in California. A series 
of bad decisions and no leadership eventually leads to cannibalism. 
3) "A Walk in the Wild" well educated man ends up deciding his dream is to 
rough it alone in Alaska. One bad choice kills him. Guy who writes for 
Outside wrote a piece for the mag and became so involved that he went deeper 
in research and turned it into a book. If I remember correctly, the same guy 
authored "Thin Air". (My library shelves are two books deep at this point so 
its hard to find some of these books).
4) "Into Thin Air" the climbing death of one of the top professionals on 
Everest.

All based on true stories, I read these one after another two summers ago. 
They all provide difference ways of looking at leadership and responsibility. 
Excellent reading.

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