This is old news but still news to me. What was this guy thinking? Jim http://www.nfpl.library.on.ca/sharp.html [demime 0.92b removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of Stunters-Jesse Sharp.url] *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This is old news but still news to me. What was this guy thinking? People who knew him all agree that he was bipolar ("manic-depressive") with a tendency toward the manic. I've paddled with two other people diagnosed with this disease and both would, when manic, take risks that would defy belief. And they would have irrational reasons for the risk taking. When only slightly manic they would be "at the top of their game", taking in everything with skill. Jesse, who was C-1 paddler by the way, had, like so many manic people, quasi-religious ideas about his whitewater experiences. He pitchpoled down the face of the falls, there was no reason to expect damage to the boat. The water going over the falls, as is so obvious in the photos, goes out for quite a ways before it goes down. So Jesse's boat goes over the lip and enders as it picks up speed with the nose down. This was a very sad, disturbed man. Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** 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 08:07 AM 10/9/2003 -0500, James wrote: >Jesse, who was C-1 paddler by the way, had, like so many manic people, >quasi-religious ideas about his whitewater experiences. I knew of a floridly manic bipolar adult man who climbed into the polar bear den at a zoo to commune with the bears. He barely survived. While there may be some creativity associated with very mild mania in some people, bipolar disorder carries with it huge morbidity and mortality. It is time to stop treating psychiatric illness as mere craziness or some sort of family problem or as a personal choice and see it for what it is, namely neuropsychiatric illness in which the substrate of the illness, the brain, processes information in an errant or ineffective manner. We also need to be careful about whether mental illness like any other illness influences the ability to kayak safely. If Jesse truly was manic, too bad someone didn't haul him off to the nearest ER to have him committed for treatment so that he might have had the chance to paddle again. Again, again we come and go, changed, changing. Hands join, unjoin in love and fear, grief and joy. The circles turn, each giving into each, into all. Wendell Berry ********************************************************* John S. March, MD, MPH Professor and Chief, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke Child and Family Study Center 718 Rutherford Street Durham, NC 27705 919/416-2404 (P); 919/416-2420 (F) Email: jsmarch_at_acpub.duke.edu Website: http://www2.mc.duke.edu/pcaad ********************************************************* *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> The water going over the falls, as is so obvious in > the photos, goes out for quite a ways before it goes down. So Jesse's > boat goes over the lip and enders as it picks up speed with the nose > down. > Somebody, I think Jim Snyder or Jess Whittemore, calculated that in order for him to have cleared the water And the boulder field at the bottom, he needed to have achieved a speed of something like 17 miles per hour in the stretch above. Joe P. *************************************************************************** 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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