Perhaps another way to think of the situation is that "anyone (weakest or most experienced) can call for your 'OUT PLAN' " The O UT PLAN is the (hopefully prearranged) action you take if conditions become to bad for paddling. There may be different actions in the plan as you progress along your route. It could be that in certain areas the only plan is "tow the slow boat so we get to safety quickly". The point is that the "weakest" paddler does not make the decision as to what the group does. He (or anyone else in the group) does get to decide if the group switches from the main plan to the backup plan. Since I often paddle with groups of inexperienced paddlers, I (as the most experienced) have often switched to a backup plan even though I knew I would have no trouble paddling in the condtions. What I was not sure of was my ability to do rescue's on several kayaks in those conditions (my rescue technique is not that practiced). Before you talk someone out of the decision to go to a backup plan, make sure that you have no doubts about your ability to assist those who might need rescue in the condtions into which you are taking them. In the case Matt described he not only had himself, but several others who had more than enough rescue skills to assist the one paddler who was having second thoughts. The assigning of highly skilled people to stay close to one paddler is just really another OUT PLAN that works well in this case because of the strenghts of the other paddlers in the group. Discussing the backup plans before launching and identifying points on the routes where switching decisions can be easily made can give the "weaker" paddlers the confidence to push their limits a little if they know that its not an all or nothing decision. It can be also be useful to get them to make the "stay on shore" decision if the plan calls for long exposed sections without any easy 'OUTS'. Just some rambling thoughts from a "Timid" paddler. Mark J. Arnold MJAkayaker_at_aol.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Jul 15 2000 - 13:52:52 PDT
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