Dave, Like me, you tend to be a person of many words in answering a question. :-). But deep inside your explanation about how dangerous is seakayaking is one word that says it all: INSIDIOUS. That is the danger of seakayaking; it lurks beneath the surface ready to pounce on you. Thanks for a thorough explanation. ralph Dave Kruger wrote: > > "Dr. Peter Rand" wrote: > > > > The thread on safety has got me curious about how risky kayaking really is. > > How does it compare to say bicycling, skiing, motorcycling, parachuting, > > hiking, other outdoor activities, etc? > > Like a lot of other things, it depends on what type of skiing, motorcycling, > hiking, etc., you are comparing it to. > > My subjective scan: if you avoid tide races and surf zones, and are a > novice/beginner sea kayaker, it is similar to hiking and biking in risk, with > one important difference: in hiking and biking, it is easy to STOP the > activity and sort out your choices. Many times sea kayaking, you do not have > that choice, and can not get off the water readily. Consequence: a storm > which would only be an annoyance if hiking might be very threatening if you can > not get off the water. This makes the risk in sea kayaking much more > insidious: you can get into trouble and be unaware you are in trouble until > you are in a situation where you can not escape it. In hiking, you can STOP. > Sometimes in sea kayaking you can not. > > If you are an adrenaline junkie, and train for surf zones and tide races -- and > regularly expose yourself to them -- it is maybe as dangerous as off-road > motorcycling, and similar to sport rock climbing, but not as dangerous as > alpine climbing, with its higher objective hazards (stonefall, avalanches, > etc.). Maybe about as risky as glacier-walking such as people do out here to > climb the "easy" routes on Mt Baker, Mt Adams, Mt Hood, and Mt Rainier. > > I don't think anybody has any actuarial data to compare sea kayaking to other > sports, because accident/injury/fatality information is mostly anecdotal, and > there is no one (to my knowledge) "tracking" accidents, unlike the case for > North American mountaineering, which is summarized each year by the AAC. > > -- > Dave Kruger > Astoria, OR > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not > to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Feb 27 2000 - 08:20:41 PST
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