[Paddlewise] Cold shock case

Last week, Robert Woodward was kind enough to dig up a couple of 
references to a cold water boating accident that occurred on Great 
South Bay located on the south side of Long Island (NY). The 
references are as follows:

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_040605_missingboater.html

http://www.newday.com/news/local/longisland/
ny-limiss0406,0,7285038.story?coll=ny-main-tabheads

Two men fishing from a canoe capsized into 40 o F water. A man on 
shore heard their srceams, grabbed his kayak and got to them in time 
to save one of the victims. The other was no longer at the surface 
and could not be found.

The victim was wearing light clothing. Neither of the fishermen wore 
PFDs.

Read both accounts. This is a classic case of cold shock and 
drowning. Authorities told the press that under the conditions of 
dress and water temp., the victim, who left two kids and a pregnant 
wife, ...."could be expected to survive just over an hour". 

The victim was described as a strong swimmer. A friend was quoted to 
say there was no way the victim wouldn't be able to swim to shore. 
Not a chance, I think!

Message:  The general boating public has no clue about the effects of 
cold water immersion. The authorities almost always get it wrong.

Cold shock accounts:

I would appreciate any first person or first person witnessed cold shock accounts 
that Paddlewise folks would care to post to the list or send to me back 
channel.

Cold water workshops:

Chuck Hotlst noted an upcoming gear testing opportunity a few days 
ago <http://www.isk.canoe-kayk.org> to be held April 16.

In my general area, Bill Lozono (Atlantic Kayak Tours) ran a workshop 
on the Hudson back in November, and the The Small Boat Shop ran a 
session in Norwalk, CT (Long Island Sound) in January 2005. Both 
sessions had about 25 attendees. I think a similar workshop was run 
at DTBH in Manhatten this year. Workshops have been run on alternate 
years at Annapolis, Md in January by the Chesapeake Paddlers 
Association. We had about 90 people attend one of those workshops.

Question:  Who else is running or has, in the past, run cold water 
workshops for kayakers or the general public?

Thanks,
Chuck Sutherland
Skimmer_at_enter.net
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