"In terms of the subject header, I was talking with a fellow Victoria paddler who was out with a small group on a semi-exposed day trip a week or so ago....." If Doug Lloyd was a woman and if this was 50 years ago, he'd be a gossip. ;-) Want the world to know something just tell Doug. I've only had limited access to a computer for the past couple of months so I wasn't able to post an account of the event that Doug described. I did however tell him of the events during an afternoon phone call when he should have been working. Doug got most of the story correct. However the incident occurred at Possession Point which juts out into Juan de Fuca Strait. Possession Point guards the southeast entrance to Sooke Inlet and Basin. Secretary or Donaldson Island lies SE of the Point. The beach Doug describes lies about 2 nautical miles further east. There is no place to land on either side the point where the story took place. The closest landings where either back into the Inlet or further along the shore at Iron Mine Bay. The very tip of Possession Point was cleaved off sometime in the distant past most likely by one of our frequent earthquakes.. A 50 foot channel, narrowing from 10' at the NW end down to 3' at the exposed SE end is passable at high tide. At lower tides the exposed SE end is blocked by a pyramid or pinnacle rock covered in barnacles. On this particular day we had been rock gardening our way along the Sooke Inlet. There was little wind but a small swell which made the rock gardening more interesting. When we approached the cut at Possession Point my friend Bill slipped into the cut to check it out. He backed out saying it was not passable. Bill is a very experienced seaman having grown up on and around boats his entire life. He's been kayaking for two to three years and in that time I've learned more about seamanship from him then any kayaker that I've paddled with. However, I'm more of a risk taker, as well as a more experienced paddler than Bill, so I went in and had a look as well. This cut is relatively easy from the seaward side as the swell will carry you in and wash you straight through. Only a few power forward strokes and steering strokes are needed to clear the cut. From the landward side it is much more difficult as you have to fight the on rushing swell. I paddled in far enough to see the pinnacle flooded by the swell and then dry as the water was sucked back out. Perhaps some one of Doug's ability, and with a total disregard for their boat, could have timed it just right to clear the pinnacle before they came crashing down on the point and all those barnacles. Otherwise, Bill was absolutely right - and I backed out as well. John, the most senior and most prudent of us, had gone around to the SE end of the cut. Bill and I exchanged the view that we had to go around as it was impassable. The fourth member of the group was adjacent to us as this conversation went on. He was the most inexperienced of our group. Bill and I started to round the point thinking our friend was right behind us. I've given a lot of thought as to why he tried the cut. Partially I think it was cultural. He comes from a certain part of Europe that is well known for turning out single minded people who can be very stubborn . English is not his first language and he may simply have misunderstood why we backed out and/or misinterpreted our reasons for doing so. He's also from a generation that has traditionally put more stock in bravado then those of us who are somewhat younger. On that Sunday, at that moment it was beyond my comprehension that he would attempt the cut. It won't ever be again. I reached John just as the water drew away from the pinnacle. The water poured out of the cut and fell at least a meter. The only way to clear the rock, as I had already surmised, was with perfect timing and a total disregard for your boat. If miss timed your boat would fall off to the left and be sucked down the water fall straight into a rock out cropping in the wall. Five feet behind the rock was our friend with a look on his face that clearly denoted a total lack of comprehension. John was frantically yelling and signally him to go back. But on he came with that stupid blockhead look on his face. My face would have shown a flash of anger if anyone had of looked at it. It was a flash because I realized that if he did everything right he might just escape. He needed to dig in with two really strong forward strokes that would have carried him over the rock on the flooding swell. Instead he made two butterfly like stabs at the water. His boat was sucked down straight into the rock wall. The plastic shell made a god awful noise when it hit. It hung there then slowly started to capsize just as the next swell picked the boat up and washed it back into the cut with our friend hanging on. This is where Doug is absolutely wrong. No one hesitated ..."not wanting to hurt themselves,." That's crap. Within seconds we assessed the situation. Our friend was upside down on the other side of the rock. Going in over the rock was out of the question, I thought of that and dismissed it as it would only mean that my boat would be on top of his with him now trapped under two boats. Throwing him a rope and pulling him and his boat to safety was out to the question - we'd be dragging him over the barnacles and down into the rock wall. Bill was already returning to the other end while John and I waited to see if our friend would make it out of his boat. I was reaching for my spray skirt, anticipating surfing/swimming in over the rock if I didn't see him come up, when he wet exited. The only safe way to get him out now that he was out of his boat was to go back around and drag him out the other end. Which is what we did. All of this happened in less then a minute. Initially I thought this was the most fearsome looking capsize I've witnessed. My confidence in my friend was now zero. In the face of such poor judgement I started to assume the worst. I was thinking fast bleeding head wounds, possible concussion and lacerations to the hands and arms. Luckily the very swell that made the cut impassable acted to help our friend as it washed him out of the cut instead of beating him against the rock walls. Our friend climbed back into his boat off a rock shelf and we pumped out the cock pit. I told him we'd go ashore but he pleaded with us not to. That he was all right and that he was sorry for having delayed us. I'll be fine lets go on. We mistakenly listened to him and not 10 minutes later he came out while rounding a flat rock that was drying and flooding in a very very small swell. I assisted with a T-Rescue and we had him back in his boat in a matter of minutes. While he adjusted his skirt the rest of agreed he was going straight to shore. Doug goes on with his account. "...The area is the same setting where some of these paddlers got into trouble last year (minus inexperienced paddlers for the most part) and decided to abandon their kayaks, opting to walk out on the rough local trail (some returing to paddle out later in the week, and some portaging their kayaks out later). Think cliffs, wind, shallows, swell, boils, current, cold. I've been out to this area in every conceviable condition, solo and with other paddlers. I'm actually impressed with the paddlers who have turned back when they felt threatened with further exposure - at least that is how I feel in retrospect, now that I've had time to think about how difficult it can be for certain paddlers to voice their aversion when surrounded by a bunch of weekend warriors...." Linking the incident of two weeks ago with the events of a year ago is the type of irresponsible recounting of events that in the past has cost Doug the respect of people here in Victoria. Doug you should be more careful. Let me begin by correcting the statement "...got into trouble." A year ago I organized that trip. The conditions on that day where challenging. Without digging out my log I can recall that a strong wind was opposing a very strong flooding current in the Strait. Every member of the group had decided that we would paddle to Possession Point then make an assessment about continuing. We decided to press on to the next head land that Doug mistakenly refers to in his discourse. At that point we would assess the situation, prior to rounding the final head land, and landing at the beach that leads to an old abandoned Trap Shack. I was paddling sweep. For some reason the lead simply paddled around the head land while I tried to call him and the group back. Now that was a mistake. On the beach I told the guys we'd have to fight to get back around the head land. We had two choices: Stay close inshore, which was frightful looking, but where the current might be weaker; or go off shore and try to avoid the rough water at the end of the head land. The weakest paddler wanted to try the off shore route so that's what we did. Even out here he was loosing way. I attempted to tow him but to no avail. We landed back on the beach. Where as the organizer I knew a trail would lead us either back to the launch site or to a near by parking area where we could catch a ride back to our cars. We could have sat out the current and paddled out on the ebb, but I had to pick my son up at school so everyone decided to walk out with me. We had a bail out plan before we left. In fact we had a bail out route at Iron Mine Bay for the first headland that we rounded. I argued for striking out for it, by staying inshore, as then we'd only be two Kilometers from our put in. But we listened to the cautious voice and stayed ashore. To me that's not trouble that's wisdom. I knew a year ago that I could paddle around that headland and back to the put in. In fact I did it the next day in worst conditions and alone. But I swallowed my pride and listened to the guy who didn't want to. Not doing so would have led to trouble. I'm sure Doug has given lots of thought to "...how difficult it can be for certain paddlers to voice their aversion when surrounded by a bunch of weekend warriors," or maybe even one. But the events of two weeks ago had nothing to do with a fear of speaking up. The situation occurred because of poor judgement that came about because of a combination of a lack of awareness, kayaking skills, a possible language/cultural gap, misplaced ego and poor seamanship. Our friend should have been tuned into an awareness of the environment and those around him. Watching two more experienced kayakers back away from an area should have fired warning signals in the less experienced kayakers brain -"DON'T GO IN THERE." He heard us say it was not doable but proceeded anyway. On the beach I explained that out here it's not about keeping up with the Jones. It's too dangerous an environment for those games. But that it's about developing skills, the ability to read the environment, seamanship and judgement that help us better manage the risks. The following week we went to the pool and worked on basic strokes as Doug described. He should have done that months ago. This past weekend my friend completed his Level II Canadian Recreation Canoe Association course. Although this is a flat water course, the participants did it inshore of Race Rocks where the currents and winds are never calm or flat. Although the Level II course is designed to teach wet exits, rescues and basic strokes most of the students including my friend where rolling at the end of the course. As for me I'm confident that my friend is well on the way to becoming a skillful paddler, but I'm going to watch and listen very closely when communicating with him. As for his judgement time will tell. Doug Lloyd is a far better paddler then I'll ever be. I admire his skill, his tenacity and his faith. I sometimes half jokingly refer to myself as a DL in training. I believe the basic kayaking skills can be learned by almost anyone. It's the leadership, communication, and judgement skills that keep tripping me up. Well ok, I still suck in the surf and my off side roll is well off side, but I'll get them long before I exhaust everything there is to learn about L.C. and J. gordin warner *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Mar 02 2004 - 06:08:56 PST
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