A fisherman heads out from his lake side camp house on the opening day of fishing in his new Pungo. The boat is 12' long, weighs 50+ lbs, and has one bulkhead in the back. At dusk he catches a good size bass at a spot in the middle of the lake. As he reaches to bring in the fish he leans too far and capsizes the boat. He is wearing a PFD, there is no one around to hear his cries for help and it is too dark for anyone to see him. What should he do? He does not have a paddle float or if he did it floated away. He is healthy but a little out of shape and over weight. He is wearing Chino, a T-shirt and a gimme cap. The water is cool, but not immediately life threatening. What is the easiest thing to teach a casual paddler so he or she can deal with a capsize. Recreational boats are heavy for there size. They often don't have bulkheads. The paddler probably does not have any safety equipment beyond a PFD (if he has that he might not have it on). An older person may not have necessary upper body strength to empty the boat or pull themselves up over the side of the boat. A casual paddler will not take the time to practice sophisticated self rescue techniques. If you had his attention at a demo for 3 minutes, what would you show the guy that could potentially save his life? Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St Glastonbury, CT 06033 USA Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847 http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Apr 17 2003 - 13:13:58 PDT
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