[Paddlewise] Retail and Safety

As I'm sure you know if you have been reading the nearly fatal thread I feel
pretty strongly about personal responsibility. Ultimately there is only one
person sitting in that cockpit and that one person is 100% responsible for
his decisions.

I also think that  a retailer should do all that they can to promote safety.
I can honestly say that I don't think I ever sold a boat without suggesting
classes.  Classes appear to benefit everyone, the new paddler is not only
safer but has a greater enjoyment of the sport because of the control and
efficiency they have learned, the instructor (in many cases me) is happy
because he gets to earn a living doing what he loves, and the retailer is
happy knowing that his customer is safe and is having such a great time that
he is telling all of his friends about the great shop with the swell staff
that took such fantastic care of them.

The shop that I used to work for (actually I still teach for them, I just no
longer work the retail side of things) in my opinion goes out of its way to
encourage safety.  When someone purchases a boat they receive a BOP ( the
company says this stands for boat owners package, I always thought it was
boat owners propaganda).  In this BOP among other things the customer
receives coupons for discounts on classes as well as discounts on wetsuits
or drysuits.  I think that as a whole we tried really hard to get safety
across to clients.  That said, not all clients are receptive...

The Famous Dying (almost) Corsican Brothers (or spike and mike go a boating)

It was a typical rainy November day in Seattle when their van pulled in.  I
remember greeting them and watching them gravitate towards the whitewater
room.  Once they had a chance to settle in I approached them and struck up a
conversation.  As it turns out Spike and Mike want to become whitewater
boaters, they have seen them on TV and it looks like a kick in the pants.
Great I tell them we have a class starting next week and it still has two
slots left in it and hand them a brochure.  I continue to query them about
what kind of paddling they will do and suggest that they need to get boats
that match their physical size and the style of ww they intend to pursue.  I
start to suggest that they sit in a couple of boats so we can discuss proper
sizing when Spike says "got any black ones?" "yeah" says mike, "we want
black ones".  I'm kinda shocked here and go on to say that choosing a model
first is the way to go, but it comes back to me as "well do you have any
black ones?".  So I go check inventory and in fact we have a pair of all
black Corsica's (hence the dying Corsican bros).

In those days the Corsica was considered something of a nice predictable
general use/creek boat, so it was not really a bad choice for these two.
"Fantastic" says Mike "we'll take 'em" says Spike.  Ok, you'll need float
bags for those.  "Huh?  Don't they float?" "yes but just barely and they are
very tough to rescue when full of water.  Think of float bags as cheap
insurance." "nope, we're on a tight budget" Me "but, but"  Helmets, "nah got
bike helmets"  "Do they cover your temples? etc. etc."  no sale.  Life
Jackets, "nope we have ski belts"   "you mean those old foam belts water
skiers used to use"  "yup"  "those are not even close to adequate, they
offer no padding do nothing to keep your head up etc.etc."  no sale.  This
went on and on and on.  They left with two black boats two paddles and two
skirts.


I told them over and over about lessons, I made comparisons to other
dangerous sports I used the word death (I think that excited them, not sure
really).  They insisted that they were tough, after all they did ride
moto-cross, and had taught themselves all other sports. What could I have
done?  The only thing I could have done would have been to refuse the sale.
would that have helped? I doubt it, in ten minutes they would be at another
shop buying boats and who knows what they would have told them.  I may have
been able to talk them into a video, I really can't remember if they bought
one or not. Anyway these guys had definitely been read the riot act multiple
times during the sale.  As they left I told a co worker that I hoped we
didn't see their names in the paper in the next couple of days.  I told him
to keep an eye out for black Corsicas stuck in log jams.

About a week later they re appeared (hooray they're still alive!)  It seems
that they had disregarded everything I told them about sticking to flatwater
learning strokes learning to roll etc.  They had gone out and launched on a
class III stretch of river that was running pretty high.  They had both
capsized and had long miserable swims.  One paddle was gone and it had taken
along time to find one of the boats.  Well, slowly and definitely the hard
way they were learning.  They bought wetsuits and helmets and pfd's and
float bags and some of the other things that the "salesman" had tried to
"stick them for" the first time.  They still would have nothing to do with
lessons.  I think this must have been when they bought the video.


Over the next few weeks months and years these two became regulars in the
shop.  Each week they had new carnage tales and each week they grew more
receptive to advice.  These two were lucky.  Their first experience could
have been fatal, but instead they learned from it and became a little safer.
They did teach themselves how to roll and various other skills.  I saw them
on the river myself and they were learning.  They were definitely hacks and
had no river etiquette and ticked people off more that once at playspots,
but they were alive and becoming safer and more skilled.

My only point in telling this is that sometimes no matter what you say
people do dumb, sometimes very dumb things.

Actually there is another point.  Perhaps if someone heard that a store had
sold two inexperienced paddlers whitewater boats with no safety gear and no
instruction they would rashly jump to conclusions and make accusations of
negligence.  I hope one of the things we learn from this is that there are
two sides to every story.


Cheers,



--
Rob Cookson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Benjamin Franklin

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