Re: [Paddlewise] Anyone understand lightning?

I've never had the opportunity to closely observe lightning on water, I'll 
pass thanks. I have had very personal encounters during the big mountain 
phase of my climbing life. What always amazed me is the way it 
occasionally threw all the theory out the door and did something 
spectacular. I've been sitting next to a guy that felt the strike as a 
mild shock ( not a close strike by any means) while I felt nothing. I've 
had my ice axe, and hardware buzz with electricity in the air and my hair 
stand on end but never a discharge although we were certainly asking for 
it. I took a solo trip into the Palisades one year and got caught in a 
storm just below Bishop Pass and came away semi deaf. I actually saw 
horizontal lighting 50 feet away with the correct ear shattering noise to 
accompany it. At the time I was sitting in a pool of water due to a leaky 
bivi tent. I was in a little horseshoe of rocks and obviously came out 
alive but I never saw any strikes on prominent points around me or 
anywhere within my field of vision. My point is you don't do anything 
stupid but don't expect it to leave you alone either. You can do stupid 
things, (my trip) and escape sometimes, but don't count on it. It will do 
whatever it wants to, unless you're safe in a car.

Lawyer and his client are out on the golf course when a lightning storm 
comes up. The client says let's head for the clubhouse. The lawyer says no 
it's not dangerous, raises his 9 iron and says," OK so take me now." You 
can guess the punch line, he's immediately fried. Substitute fishing on a 
lake or ????; urban legend, or grim warning?

Kevin 
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