As a former naval line officer, it was drilled into me again and again: Safety rules are written in the blood of those who didn't heed or didn't know. As a former cop, we had a saying: everyone goes home at the end of the shift. As a physician we comment that the more we know the more we realize how little we know. Being forehanded (constant vigilance), training and preparation keeps you alive. If I don't know how to do something, I ask, I learn, I practice as much as I reasonably can, before I commit. And then I keep doing this again and again. There is no pride in ignorance. I won't be able to plan for everything that will go wrong, but a clear take home lesson from Deep Trouble: if you don't plan, everything will go wrong. If you do plan, the solution or a damn close one, will be at hand. I go out fully intending to come back, unbloodied. Every decision I make is made against this measure. I am out there to have fun, learn new skills, gain new proficiencies, and challenge myself, but I'm not out there to die. Mistakes and bad karma will happen, but a deep tool box of skills, and the confidence to use them, usually combine to get us home. No toolbox, no confidence, no sense wasting my time. Before I go out again this year, I will make sure I can safely wet exit using a variety of methods, and that I can safely get back in my kayak using a variety of different methods. I plan to find very skilled people to make sure I know what this means. And I will use those skills to develop new ones. I will limit my risk by staying within my skill level. I have an obligation to myself, my family, my co-workers, my friends, and to other kayakers, not to screw this up through ignorance, pride/ego, stupidity or any combination thereof. That being said, I will make many mistakes, let us hope they are small ones, and that they come separately! I look at kayaking as a skilled sport, of which I have much to learn, much to practice, one step at a time. I hope to become proficient enough to someday meet every challenge and come home alive. That will take me the rest of my life :-) And man, do I love this sport! Ken Schroeter Laconia, NH, USA 43°32'25"N 71°28'59"W "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" - Anais Nin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
someone emailed me this one years ago: http://www.dotzen.org/folks/markz/photo/graphics/sign1024.jpg for the www impaired: it's a real sign, reminding [power] boaters to BACK their trailer into the water!! and we're talking about a very large sign, when comparing it to the width of the road behind it!! mark -- #------canoeist[at]dotzen[dot]org------------------------------------ # mark zen o, o__ o_/| o_. po box 474 </ [\/ [\_| [\_\ ft. lupton, co 80621-0474 (`-/-------/----') (`----|-------\-') #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~ http://www.dotzen.org/paddler The Colorado Paddlers' Resource & Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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