Re: [Paddlewise] Nearly Fatal

I am not that familiar with the Loon so I went by Debbie's description. 
Oh Wes, how well does your boat float while swamped? :)

>From the description, I think the dealer was wrong.  I didn't say "they
must be punished".  TheWetOne was wrong too--just as negligent.  It
happens all the time, but I hope we can somehow find a way to stop this
misinformation and lack-of information.

I haven't advocated any sentencing; I think we should demand that all
dealers provide safety information, including information on
paddlefloats, rescues, positive flotation, PFD use, and emergency
signaling.  Just like your demand from manufacturers for positive
flotation.  Like I said in my earlier post, the dealer is very often a
newbie's first contact with the paddling community; not using the dealer
for an initial information source is a big mistake.

You're right.  I don't know what took place either.  It's a "he said,
they said" situation, but I do know from personal experience, as well as
anecdotes from others, that there are a lot of people venturing out
there who are not armed with the right information, skills, or
equipment.  

The PW discussion a week or so ago [Risk vs Natural Selection] is
symptomatic of what's going on.  People on this list, to some extent,
lecture each other about safety.  While the prevailing safety attitude
here is great, it's the novice who has never heard of Paddlewise who
needs to hear the message about safety. We all realize that there are
people who know little about safety and are getting or risk getting
hurt.  We speak out to the only kayak-relating audience we know of--each
other.  But, we're preaching to people who already realize that safety
is important.  They don't always know everything about it, but they're
in the right place to find out.  We need to find a wider audience, "get
the word on the streets", so to speak, and let people know simply that
safety is important, then help them find resources (like PWise) to learn
more about safe techniques.

Shawn

> << Rob, while I agree with your contention that a general "blame the
>  dealer" mentality is ultimately bad for our industry, from Debbie's
>  statement, I would say that the dealer was, in fact, negligent to some
>  (debatable) degree.  She said that she looked inside and saw no
>  flotation.  TheWetOne was told the boat didn't need any additional
>  flotation.  That's pretty gross negligence.  Not saying anything would
>  have been less negligent!   >>
> 
> Shawn,
>   I for one would reserve judgment and sentencing on this dealer.  I don't
> know what the conversations between the new paddler and the shop people were.
>  Did he misrepresent experience, did he promise to purchase safety gear
> before going out, etc.  I am not saying that there were things that could not
> have been done better.  Truth is, I don't know what took place, I wasn't
> there.


-- 
Shawn W. Baker          0                                    46°53'N
© 2000            ____©/______                              114°06'W
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\  ,/      /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
baker_at_montana.com    0        http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/
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