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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I'm curious about the pool with wave making ability. Do you have a link with a photo; I'd like to see a picture. How big are the waves? Craig ----- Original Message ----- From: "niels.blaauw" <niels.blaauw_at_wanadoo.nl> To: <paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 11:02 PM Subject: [Paddlewise] swimming pool accident >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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
From: "niels.blaauw" <niels.blaauw_at_wanadoo.nl> > 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. Interesting. I have been doing pool sessions with WW kayakers* this season (the SK club couldn't get enough people) and most of them wear helmets in the pool. They want to practice in the same gear that they use to paddle on rivers, so helmets & WW drytops are used instead of bathing suits. Someone told me that another WW club insists on all paddlers wearing helmets in the pool. I had an incident a couple of years ago that makes me think a helmet isn't a bad idea in the pool. I was practicing hip flicks at the edge of the pool and trying some quasi-handroll stuff. At one point I flipped over and immediately went into hand roll mode. I almost got up and it encouraged me to try again. After flailing up and down a few times, I had moved myself over to the side of the pool and slammed my temple against the pool deck! Stars for a bit and a wet exit. I ended up with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (must of dislodged something in the balance organs) and was out of it for a couple of weeks. Now I stay away from the edge of the pool and use a float or storm paddle for such practice. In your case, with such shallow water in parts of the pool, it may be a good idea. Mike *tried rolling a canoe (Rival) last week. Trickier than it looks - I'll stick to SK :-). One woman there can hand roll a canoe (Phantom? small single canoe). Makes me want to cry!!! *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
One interesting pool accident I observed one time was when a friend nearly broke his foot. Seems the student's paddle dove in the roll attempt and pinned the instructors foot to the bottom of the pool. After that the rest of us instructors developed some fancy foot work. Bob *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
When I was playing canoe polo, we played often in pools and during the winter we always had training in a large (non wave) pool. We always kept our helmets and pfd´s on. Canoe polo ist just a game and training is just fun (most of the time), but it happens SO fast you get a paddle or ball on the head or bumb with your body on other boats or on pool edges aso.... Most injuries only happen without helmet or pfd. So it´s a policy to put them on, all the time. OK, while training some techniques (without the possibility of diect contact) we paddle without helmet. (I stopped canoe polo 1,5 years ago, but the others still do it.) Pool training is GREAT. We got an outside pool with wave machine here also, but during sommer there´s no chance get in with boats. bye Jochen *************************************************************************** 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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