Re: [Paddlewise] Trips - hosts and leaders

In a message dated 7/13/2005 8:27:15 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
jimtibensky_at_fastmail.fm writes:

Nick  Schade said:" If you really want to lead club trips, do it. Your
risk of  being sued is about the same as you drowning while paddling
alone. Sure,  shit happens, and in their grief survivors may lash out,
but don't blame  someone else if you really just don't want to be
bothered. It is your  decision and your responsibility."



Then Jim said:"You get insurance, you get training, you practice, you plan  
and then you
decide for yourself how far to go with risk. I would guess that  most of
the people who would never lead a trip learned how to paddle  from
someone who was willing to take the risk.  

So leave it to  those of us who are comfortable with it. But, I think,
blaming lawyers is  really misguided.  Lawyers are tradesmen (and women)
who are hired to do  a job at the request of someone.  There might be a
few ambulance chasers  out there, but I've never run into a kayak chaser."


Leading trips is a very informative process. I have learned a lot of my  
tendencies and those of my friends and fellow paddlers. It is a pain in the butt  
sometimes from an organizational perspective. I have to collect waivers; ACA 
day  fees if they are not current members;send emails as to where to meet, no,  
scratch that, go here now the put in has changed; organize the shuttle;   
send in the waivers and fees to the club; appoint body guards for suspect  
paddlers; reign in the speedsters a little; hover over the NOAA forecast with  
worry; the list is nearly endless. The reward is a bit of organizational tuning  
for me and the knowledge that someone who was looking for good company in  
certain waters got that.
 
As a native Californian I should be running away from responsibility at all  
costs, as it's apparently in our DNA to sue and be sued. I have never been in 
a  movie, nor stood on a surfboard but all I met in the Rocky's as a seasonal  
wrangler at various dude ranches assumed kiddingly I must have done so. I do 
not  for know for certain where the California stereotypes come from but do 
have my  suspicions. Most Californians are not from there, they moved in within 
their  lifetime. Most who move to California is to take advantage of the fact 
that it  is one of the primary economic engines of the United States, and thus 
the  western world. 
 
Yes, I am concerned about our litigous society. I'm also concerned about  
seeing to it that clubs have newer faces to lead trips to ease the burden off  
the veterans who have been pretty committed to the clubs over the years. I think 
 most of us prefer our personal trips best, but the more formal ones can be  
pretty rewarding, too.
 
Rob G
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