[Paddlewise] The Safety Lecture....

Doug talked about a recent sea kayaking death and talked
about reminding newcomers to the sport about boating
safety.  Sometimes the experts need reminding too.  I just
got an e-mail today from some friends in Canada.  When I
lived in Michigan we had a great little whitewater run on
the Goulais River just north of the Sault Saint Marie.

One drop which we dubbed "Drakes Falls" after a friend of
ours who was the first to run it, was virtually always a
portage for me.  I ran it once at a practically dry level,
but at full flow this 8 foot falls had a nasty full depth
stopper and a strainer just down stream.  Not a difficult
drop but serious consequences if you screw up!

A hair boater from Alpena died there last weekend.  He was
very experienced and had successfully run an ungodly 30 foot
falls on the same river.  On this day however he  shot ahead
of the group, and ran Drakes falls without waiting for the
other two experienced boaters to set up throw bags for
safety at the bottom of the drop.

Being with other experienced boaters only will improve your
safetyonly if you work as a team and follow the basic group
paddling safety rules.  I hope this is not too far off topic
since it is a whitewater incident.  Maybe a throw rope would
not have helped, maybe not, but at least he would have had a
chance at rescue.  After four hours of CPR a good friend of
mine is left with a lot of guilt, a long list of what-if
questions, and the dead body of one of his paddling friends.




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