Re: [Paddlewise] Rec Boat Scenario

Nick Schade wrote:
> 
> If you had his attention at a demo for 3 minutes, what would you show
> the guy that could potentially save his life?

If I ended up in the described situation, I would probably not be able
to save my life, even with 20 years of on-water experience. In three
minutes, you can definitely NOT teach somebody how to perform a self
rescue with a rec boat, but you may teach him to avoid the situation.

I'm imagining a one-shot video of 3 minutes. The shot starts with a
happy paddler, in a beautiful sunset. Calm, glassy waves reflect the
colors of the sun: Pure bliss and beauty. A large vessel comes by at
quite a distance. We see the kayakker watch the vessel as part of the
scenery. A few moments later, the wake of the vessel is approaching the
kayak. (We may take the shoot above a sandbar, so the wake will rise out
of the water and break.) The kayakker wakes up from his dream and is
clearly deciding on some action. Also, he clearly doesn't have a clue
how to handle the waves. First he may try to get away from them, of
course not being able to outrun a wave. The wave tips him over. With a
bit of a struggle he manages to get out of the boat, coming up gasping
and coughing. The waves have passed: Once more we only have only the
beautiful swell and the sunset.
After catching his breath, the kayakker rights the boat (even with
little floatation, you can do this once.) He tries to reenter the
cockpit, without succes. He tries to climb the stern, but slides off. By
now, the boat has taken on so much water the bow is sinking. He tries to
lift the bow by pushing down the stern. For a moment it seems the boat
will come up, but just when it is level, the last bubble of air will
leave the stern and the boat will sink. The kayakker is now a swimmer.
He will try to gather some of his floating equipment, decide he is not
able to swim with his hands full, then leaves it all behind and starts
swimming away from the scene. The camera will zoom out to a wide shot: A
large ocean, a silhouet of a coastline at the horizon, the glassy swell
and the tiny, tiny kayakker making a pathetic attempt to make it to the
far away shore. The film will go to fast-forward, so the 3 minute shot
will end with the sun going down on the scene, leaving the viewer in
total darkness.

Hopefully the image will linger in the mind of the viewer. At first, it
may teach him to stay within swimming range of the shore. Later on, he
may be curious how the kayakker could have saved himself, and gain
knowledge about boats and equipments. I think you can not force that
kind of knowledge on anyone. People will not learn if they don't want
to. You might force them to read a book and take an exam, but even if
they pass, it is likely they will never apply their knowledge to real
life. People can use all their intelligence just to stay ignorant. If
they don't want to learn, fine, but let them stay close to shore.

Niels.
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