RE: [Paddlewise] Defensive Paddling

Speaking of defensive paddling, jet skies aren't the only things you
need to be looking out for. Here is an interesting lucky-on-the-lake
news item from the local paper:

On Tuesday, June 13, two brothers who work at Campbell River Kayaks (mid
Vancouver Island, east side) were teaching a class of twenty students
(with two additional parents) from Discovery Passage Elementary about
11:00 am. The students, parents and the two teachers were on a local
lake, all in their kayaks, as part of an overall trip that included
lessons. Conditions were windy and poor, with precipitation and a low
ceiling. Suddenly a float plane came out of the trees, low and looking
to land further down the lake (it appeared to be, anyway).

The four-seat Cessna 180 saw the group of paddlers, and it is assumed
that is why it immediately banked into the rocky shoreline 15 - 20
meters away, crashing into the nearshore trees and killing all the
occupants. The group leader praised the dead pilot during an interview,
commenting on the quick reaction that probably saved many lives. The
leader landed his kayak right away, but the cockpit was crushed and no
one aboard was conscious, with one fellow hanging out of the plane's
window opening. The other brother joined the first, and together covered
the commercial Cessna with fire retardant to prevent it from exploding,
so as to render first aid to the one passenger left accessible.

Interestingly, the grade 3 and 4 students will be called as witnesses
for the Transportation safety Board as "Children or junior adults don't
have any biases...They tell you exactly what they (saw)".
The children were removed from the nearby scene, and taken back to
school to talk to crisis counselors. An eye was being kept on the
children for delayed stress.

So, look forward, look astern, look port, look starboard, and...look up
(and look up and backwards!).

I could pass on other true close encounter stories from the shores of
Vancouver Island between float planes and kayakers, but lets just say
the impression I got from individuals involved was that the authorities
truly consider us as "speed bumps". Unfortunately, we are rather slow
speed bumps.

BC'in Ya
Doug Lloyd

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