[Paddlewise] swimming pool accident

Is this the first ever accident report from a swimming pool? It wouldn't
surprise me...

Last saterday, february 9th, I was teaching my rolling class in the
local swimming pool. Since we have covered the basics like hipsnap, high
brace, boat control, fear and anything else I could think of, this was a
full hour of putting the bits together: A student in a boat with a
paddle, somebody supporting one blade, and trying to get the high brace
deeper and deeper under water until it becomes an effortless roll. A
tiring and boring lesson. It was obvious people didn't enjoy it anymore
after half an hour, so I decided to give them a break, turn on the waves
and invite them to play in the waves for a while. We practice in a
shallow pool with a wave machine. The pool slopes into a kind of tiled
beach where the waves break. 
The pool turned into the regular mess of swamped boats, loose paddles
swimmers and very happy surfers, until one of my students broached on a
wave, leaned the wrong way, tried to brace but had his paddle drawn
under his boat by the current, and hit his head on the bottom. He came
up by himself, still sitting in the boat. I had seen it happen and
quickly went over to him. He seemed a bit disoriented and started to
bleed from his right eyebrow, so I got him out of his boat and out of
the water, before the whole pool would be full of blood. He was able to
walk, although he appreciated my support. When we had him seated and had
cleaned the wound a bit, the bleeding had already stopped, but the wound
seemed serious enough to get the guy to a doctor. It turned out it
wasn't as bad as it looked: The wound was taped, not stitched, there was
no concussion and the guy was able to drive home by himself.

Playing in the waves in this pool is regular practice in my club.
Although we always wear helmets in surf and whitewater, we do not wear
them in this pool. I don't know why: It's a kind of tradition that
nobody ever questions. We will question it now, because something like
this was bound to happen. I talked to it to some of our experienced
kayakkers, and they seem to think it is stupid: If he hadn't leaned the
wrong way and if he had the reflexes to fend off the ground with his
arms, he wouln't have hit his had. I think they are wrong: We go to this
pool to practice, so you can't assume all people can handle surf. I
think the reflexes of this guy are good enough, but his paddle was
dragged under his boat and he didn't have the sense to let it go and use
his bare hands. This is good practice for a kayakkers: Keep a hold of
your paddle, and only let it go if everything else fails.

Helmets next time!

Niels.
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