Re: [Paddlewise] Storm Island Rescue

Dave Kruger wrote: 

>>>Perhaps the main lesson here is that glossy pages give us stuff which is
heavily massaged for the reading audience, and (on the beneficial side)
subject
to checking and rechecking, to include more than one viewpoint.
Doug's narrative would be enriched by the inclusion of the thoughts of his
companions.  Doug was willing to share;  the others, less so.  We are the
poorer for not having their thoughts.  Their sense of privacy demands their
silence, and I respect that.   No easy solutions to human needs.>>>

Well, you guys know how often I've ran to the defense of SK Magazine, and
although I scooped the story from them in a small way and broke an oral
contract of sorts, due to my own needs for closure in my life on the issue
- and certain other frustrations, I will still defend SK to the core, even
if they hate me now. 

SK does have the other viewpoints, and they have been well developed and
massaged for reader clarity and balance and diminished egocentricity. Chris
is a fine editor. As Ralph pointed out too, an editor's job is to be the
reader's friend - good thing for the readers! I saw some of the stuff SK
cut from Matt's initial rendering. It was all good stuff for the most part
that was cut - but they can't devote 3/4 of their issue to the story. Maybe
they should, but obviously they can't. I also disagree with some of Matt's
conclusions and observations, but it wouldn't be right if I didn't - then
you would know something was definitely amiss! I also accept the fact that
my inability to question Dave earlier on, so as not to insult a true kayak
guru, was the primary contributory factor to the failed crossing, given I
knew in the back of my mind all the red flags were out - one's Dave saw as
green or at least yellow. I've had a hard year living with myself, but need
to get on with it. I'm sitting on a bunch of safety articles too. 

Also, and unfortunately, the way the three of us initially wrote up our
accounts were done very quickly due to a hot edict. You saw how rough my
report was (that report is similar to what I sent to Matt). I would have
enriched it and done more correlating of facts, but we were told to get it
in fast, so it could get out to the public fast, before it got "out there"
- like PW, etc. I also specifically did not want the heavily emotional
parts taken verbatim for a wider audience, (but PW was more acceptable, so
I did not edit the post). Part of my frustration is that the reports, asked
for so quickly, didn't get out. Matt took a lot of the details from the
initial submissions, but then had to interview to get things to a better
perspective. Dave was very concerned about "wordsmithing". We did not want
to put the Necky kayak in a bad light, for example, It was an old boat - an
important consideration. We didn't want the federal Canadian Government to
look too bad, as the chart data sucked big time, but there are a bunch of
politics going on behind the scene. 

Jack also had a good post about the Hancock tragedy on this thread. I tried
to coordinate SK and Jack, but it didn't work out. I know SK has to take
each incident on a "case-by-case" basis. The need for exclusivity may
perhaps need some review, especially as it relates to newsgroups. I don't
have the answers, either. There was a recent post with full details of the
fellows stuck on the delta/island along the Columbia River. It was all over
PW. SK, I hear, are doing it up as an article. Should that be cut just
because a bunch of fat-cat braniacs on PW saw it first. I don't think so -
what useful purpose would that serve to the public. Anyway, I hope SK will
still publish the full Storm Island report some day. Dave's account is
riveting reading, though if he purports to be an adventurer, he should
toughen up and cough up! Yes, Matt really did do a good job with it all.
And Dave really was a hero in the end, keeping his flooded boat stable
enough to coordinate an air-sea rescue in the most dire of circumstances,
while I just acted as a thug and tug. Andrew and I may well owe our lives
to Dave's skill and training. I never said my version was complete, just my
version, but the more Dave protests the stories's release, the worse he
comes out looking. His stress syndrome goes way deeper than just the
ocean-abuse. 

I also spoke with Andrew tonight (he doesn't do computers). He agreed with
me that one year was plenty long enough, and fully supported what I did on
PW. He's a precious man, a pacifist, and has walked away from all the
percieved nonsense of the back and forth on the story. He has put on 1540
miles on his now heavily patched kayak, since the rescue (Dave's boat was
declared structurally unsound after the incident). Like me, Andrew spent a
whole week after the rescue, recuperating from raw, finger-bent hands,
wondering why we did the crossing, when we could have taken the agreed
route instead of sitting around at home in pain for a week. Unlike me, he
jumped back into kayaking full bore. A very special man. I'm sure he would
let you have his version on PW if you wanted it, and SK is unable to
publish Matt's tripartite version with independent review. However, I will
not do anything without Matt's and SK's permission - the PW public may have
a right to the info sooner rather than later, but my legal defense fund is
limited to selling my house and van, which wouldn't go too far and I doubt
any of the folks from the 60 e-mails of back-channel support will feed and
house me and my family. I could sell the kids I suppose, but no one in the
world has enough money. (This is a joke guys, okay :-). Andrew also had
some other things to say I will not repeat (I'm getting better at shutting
my mouth - but he did think this whole thing is a bit of a tempest in a
teapot). He said no one died or was dismembered, we could have easily lost
him (Andrew) to the sea and had to live with ourselves for the rest of our
lives, but _didn't_; so get over it, get the story out, and move on. He has
little patience for the "situation" either. You guys would really like
Andrew. He is a far better man than I will ever be. 18,500.00 miles on his
kayak now! I think most of us are missing the boat here, literally!

BC'in Ya
Doug Lloyd (Who is sorry to piggy-back so much on Dave's post) 
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