<< Scott from So Cal suggests he's willing to paddle right up to, and/or leave his boat to assist a person who is drowning or in a panic state, confident that he can handle himself in this sort of situation. And he'd be entitled to offer his life in such a fashion.>> First of all, I really don't believe that I would be offering up my life. Apparently you see it that way, but I sure don't. Of course I've heard all the stories of panicked swimmers. Heck, my father was a Newport Beach lifeguard once upon a time so I was pretty much raised on the stuff. I grew up on the beaches of Southern California and have been involved in a rescue or two myself. I've been through the training countless times, but not in a number of years. Maybe I'm naive in thinking I could handle the situation. <<Most trained professionals take a slightly different read on these events. Not all, mind you, but most. And those who are not trained, or who were trained once but have gone more than a season w/o rectification or training would be foolish to assume their abilities so rashly. >> Hmmmm. Makes me wonder about the trained professionals. It cracks me up that the people on this list are so obsessed with safety issues. Heck, we've learned that dry suits are far better then wet suits and you'd be a fool to ever paddle without one. Pfd's of course MUST be worn at all times regardless of the situation. We practice our rescue skills until we are blue in the face and do rolls until it can be considered "bomb proof!" And as if that wasn't enough we then have to over burden our poor little boats with every conceivable piece of safety equipment known to man. And with all of this preparation we then come across a distressed swimmer and sit there and watch them drown because we deem the situation to be too dangerous to approach since there just might be a possibility that the person in the water could capsize us in which event we might, oh heaven forbid, get wet!!!!!! Whatever. Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 07 2000 - 18:17:27 PDT
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