Dave Kruger wrote: >Before any of those techniques will seem important, he has to >have a reason to know them: he needs to be motivated. Then he might take >on the responsibility to learn some. Right philosophy... >If I only had three minutes, I'd swim him (in his PFD) into the water fifty >feet off a safe beach, with the kayak in swamped, Cleopatra's Needle >position, and tell him, "This is what will happen if you capsize. Now >what?" Oh, but the wrong approach for the discount stores who only care about their liability of strapping the new boat to the car for the ride home... But the philosophy is right - they need to be motivated to seek help on their own. And I have to agree making them go for a swim would have a high success rate...for those that did it. Gordon Snapp wrote: >I'd say kayak makers should put something like that in their >owner's manual - dangers of capsize, difficulty of re-entry, need for >floatation in both ends, procedures for removing water from the cockpit. >(Do they already? I'll bet they do.) Now I think we are in the range of leveraging something realistic. But you know, I think some sort of warning came with the new kayaks I bought. I couldn't tell you what they said, but I think the message was somewhat tame. You're not going to find the perfect solution, but let me suggest this: Get ACA to produce a trimmed down version of their report. Just a few of the tables to scare someone enough into getting their attention. Maybe ACA would agree to produce the mini flyer for free and give them to manufacturers in exchange for allowing them to also include a ACA membership form. This mini flyer should be short - a few tables from the report about the top canoe/kayak fatality causes, and suggested resources to find more info. The message has to grab your attention: LOOK - IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 100 HOURS OF EXPERIENCE, DO NOT WEAR YOUR PFD, CONSUME ALCOHOL, OR NOT KNOW HOW TO PERFORM A SELF RESCUE, YOU STAND A SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER CHANCE OF DYING WHEN USING THIS PRODUCT. SEE INSIDE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON HOW TO MITIGATE THESE RISKS. I'd like to see ACA do this as I'm interested in saving all humans, not just the ones who paddle closed deck boats... In it also in the manufacturer's best interest as well. Regulation will stunt the large growth spurt in kayak/canoe sales. As for Nick's fat guy (of which I'm a member of the same club), it is too late to save him. The only thing you can do is try and save the next guy that buys a pungo. Will it work? I dunno. But it does seem a bit more likely to pull off than pushing people over or making them watch a video, which we know is not going to happen in the discount retailers. My 2 cents, Woody Woody's Kayak Trip Reports http://woody.myhomeserver.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 Fri Apr 18 2003 - 18:00:00 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:06 PDT