Re: [Paddlewise] Sea Kayaker attrition rate

Dave, Nick and ..........
You are certainly on to something.  There usually is more than one 
contributing factor in any accident.  I would like to suggest that:
Cause of Death, Cause of Accident and Existing Weather Conditions should be 
accounted for separately.
Death in heavy surf from striking head would look like:  1 CS 8

1 = Closed Head Injury
CS = Capsize In Surf
8 = Beaufort Scale Sea State

A three tier classification system would then have three distinct 
characteristics and one would easily be able to determine the degree of 
impact that weather conditions (Beaufort Scale) had on the accident and the 
accident on the type of injuries sustained by the victim resulting in 
death.   Something similar to how climbing routes are graded could be a 
portion of it.

In any high risk endeavor such as mountain climbing, war, solo round the 
Horn sailboat racing and to some degree sea kayaking those that survive 
often detach themselves from those that don't by deciding that those that 
perished were somehow foolish and not as capable and that the survivor was 
not foolish and superior in their capabilities.  Psychologically easier to 
accept than "There by the grace of God go I."

At 09:30 PM 5/31/2000 -0700, Dave Kruger wrote:
>Nick Von Robison wrote:
>
> > I'm just wondering if anyone has any statistics on what the percentage
> > of death rate of say, one death per 1,000 sea kayakers is? [snip]
> >
> > My presumption is that kayaking deaths are attributable to four main
> > causes.
> >
> > 1.  Sea kayakers who hit their heads on rocks or sea bottom, rolling in
> > surf, with or without helmet.
> >
> > 2.  Hypothermia.  Not dressed for immersion temps but for air temps.
> >
> > 3.  Inability to affect a good self-rescue or have a backup (see 2 above).
> >
> > 4.  An existing medical condition (low/high blood pressure, diabetes,
> > heart problems, seizures, etc.)
>
>Nick, this is a terrific idea!
>
>If it goes further, I think it would be good to adopt some sort of
>"contributing factor" approach to assessing the "cause of death."  What I'm
>getting at is that in most incidents leading to a death, such as those
>described in "Deep Trouble," there were usually (always?) a couple of 
>errors of
>judgement **prior** to the circumstances which caused the loss of life.
>
>In the AAC's Accidents in North American Mountaineering (if memory 
>serves), the
>assessment includes such things as:  "... attempting a rock route without
>enough prior experience/skill in high-angle climbing..."  "... inadequate
>practice/training in crevasse self rescue..."  "...attempting a serious
>high-angle rock climb in the face of a well-forecasted severe ice 
>storm..." and
>the like.
>
>In a paddling context, we should maybe try to find out also the degree of
>experience of the victim(s), and what got them into the pickle that did 
>'em in.
>
>I like your list for the first sort by category, but think we should shoot for
>more info, if this happens.
>
>Thanks for getting the ball rolling.
>
>--
>Dave Kruger
>Astoria, OR
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