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From: gordin warner <gwarner2_at_shaw.ca> subject: [Paddlewise] SV: SV: T-Rescue not T-brace long post Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 02:03:49 -0800 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:36 PDT

"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
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