Re: [Paddlewise] Storm Island Rescue

A tangential thought re Sea Kayaker and, probably, most other magazines which are commercial and which have to sell "news" for which people are willing to spend a portion of their disposable income.

I know no more than any other PaddleWiser about what Doug has related on his dealings with Sea Kayaker --- a magazine that I enjoy reading and to which I have subscribed for nine years.  But I am concerned with something which Doug has raised: the greater importance of having an "exclusive" status on a news item similar to this thread or of anything else.

When Tom Hancock died on a solo trip on Lake Erie, I began to research his death and the factors which contributed to his death in part because he was a
professional friend of mine in the Navy.  The data was agonizingly slow in its release from the Ohio DNR, primarily because of the coroner's extraordinarily deliberate pace in releasing her conclusions.  (Slow for me --- a torment for Tom's family.)  His death was the result of hypothermia-induced drowning, said the coroner.  I had detailed most of the DNR-related and media information on PaddleWise and on CPAKayaker by that time, and when I finally obtained the clinching report from the coroner under FOI, the news was too well communicated within the paddling community and the
loss too much of a known commodity for Sea Kayaker.  The only interest that SK had was in my interview with Tom's daughter --- provided at a lot of personal cost to her, but greatly appreciated.  By that time, my interests were with the known community within PaddleWise rather than within the commercial community of SK, and since I'd pledged to the family that the interview information would be used for the greater good of sea kayakers and not for reimbursement, in any event, it was far easier and far better to share the story with this group than to allow it to float back and forth across the editing table while SK decided if
it was worthy of their glossy pages.

So I feel the pain for you, Doug, at least to some degree.  It's too bad that the information which we all seem to want to see disseminated to the widest possible degree winds up wavering with editorial policy, out of reach of the people who have the most to gain by reading it.

Jack Martin

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