Jolie Smilowicz wrote: snip > I can feel my heart race increase > when someone says "wet exit." I still don't know how I get out of the boat, > but I always do. snip > Jolie Hi, Jolie. If your fear regards getting the spray cover off, let us know and someone more knowlegdable than me can help there. If your fear regards why do you fall out of the boat when the spray cover is removed, that's simple, gravity. If you were to jump out of a perfectly good airplane you needant worry about being able to make it back to earth. Once you capsize, your lower abdomien, hips, etc are right over the cockpit hole and in air, with gravity acting on that heavy part of your body. At the same time your feet and knees will thump against the deck. But the heavier part of the part of your body that is in air, is right over the hole. The part of your body that is in the water is more or less neutrally balanced, so the big effect is gravity acting on your butt. This will have you hanging from the sprayskirt. It's holding you in by the shoulders. Now you pop the sprayskirt and you fall out just as surely as if you stepped out of the bombbay door of an aircraft. You cannot fear being unable to fall. Gravity will never, ever, fail you. Let's say a small boy is hanging by his knees from a horizontal bar and you walk by and he says, "hey Ms, I'm afraid if I let go with my knees that I won't bump my head on the ground." The point is water will not provide support to keep you from falling. If it did, fish that jumped up out of the water might never be able to get back in. Now wouldn't that be terrible? This whole visuallization should not be used to minimize the concerns regarding entrapment as a result of inability to remove the sprayskirt. You have to be able to pop the sprayskirt or be able to scull up to take a breath while in the cockpit. That is the fear, not that you won't come out of the boat when you pop the sprayskirt. I hope that helps. mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jan 28 2002 - 19:30:11 PST
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