Re: [Paddlewise] 3- Dead Kayakers

On Wed, Jul 05, 2000 at 06:39:32PM -0400, Phlopz_at_aol.com wrote:
> A year ago, a kayaker went over a low dam on the Clinton River north of 
> Detroit and was drowned in the back wash of the "hydraulic" below the dam.
> 
> Over the last week that accident was replicated, and two other kayakers were 
> killed on the Clinton River.

I question how "experienced" any of these people were: no PFD?  no skirt?
Running low-head dams?  "Experienced" can mean a lot of different things
to different people, and I have difficulty believing that anyone with
significant whitewater experience would make such stupid decisions.
Does anyone know how long these people had been paddling and on what
kinds of rivers?

We also had a similar accident in my area recently -- a father and son
drowned in the backwash of a dam on Perkiomen Creek outside Philadelphia.
This particular one is noted in Ed Gertler's "Keystone Canoeing" (the
definitive reference for paddling for much of Pennsylvania) with the
following comment: "Take special care to avoid the sloping three-foot dam
at the county park below Egypt Road and the rounded three-foot weir
just above the mouth.  Both have deceptively powerful and potentially
lethal rollers."

There are multiple lessons to be learned from this by whitewater paddlers:

	1. Don't mess with low-head dams.
	2. Always wear a PFD.
	3. Always wear a helmet.
	4. Check the guidebook, local paddlers, etc. for recent info.
	5. Don't mess with low-head dams.

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk_at_gsp.org
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