Re: [Paddlewise] swimming pool accident

At 08:02 PM 2/11/02 -0800, niels.blaauw wrote:
>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: 

Just an aside.  In a pool session last weekend I was helping several people
that had never been in a kayak before.  One woman was getting some real
good deep high braces so I brought her over to the shallow end and started
to work on teaching her a roll.  On her first attempt she started her roll
before I let go of her paddle but came up with maybe a slight assist.  She
rolled by herself on the second attempt.  By the end of the three hour pool
session she was rolling every time on both sides.

>The pool turned into the regular mess of swamped boats, loose paddles
>swimmers and very happy surfers,

This should have been your first clue.
[snip]

>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.

Our club requires helmet even though the water is deep enough that there is
no chance of hitting bottom.  The fine edge of a fiberglass paddle blade
could do a lot of damage to an unprotected head though.

> 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. 

Why is that some experienced kayaker seem to forget that they were once
inexperienced as well?

>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. 

I think if you watch a lot people learning and what they were doing when
they've capsized you'll find that in almost every case, they've capsized
toward the side with the paddle blade in the water.  Usually, they're
trying a brace or something and the angle of the blade is wrong.  Due to
the angle of the blade, the paddle almost always goes under the boat.

I hope that the incident doesn't stop the new kayaker from continueing his
lessons, and if anything it can be used to stress the importance of kissing
the deck when capsizing before a wet exit.



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