[Paddlewise] Tragedy in Sweden

Have in vain tried to find out the water temperature
in lake Vdnern was at the time, but as the rescue boat
had problems approaching the site, due to the ice floes,
a good guess is slightly above freezing, say three 
degrees Centigrade.

Wearing half wet suits (covering the legs and the lower
torso), then Goretex paddle jackets (or something like that) 
and whitewater PFDs, no winter gloves (as far as I have
managed to find out) and using kayaks with no built-in 
flotation, seems to me pushing the envelope, so to speak.

Evidently were both guys in splendid physical and
psychological condtition, with little, or no, fat, and
not equipped for any emergency at all - as they
seem to have carried no emergency gear of any sort
(except a cellular phone, that quickly died during
the first call for assistance).

I would guess the scenery was like this: These two
worldclass athletes were lightly dressed, as they
were paddling hard and intensive - a full wet suit 
would have been very warm.

When they encountered some surf they enjoyed it
a lot (interviews with the survivor tell us), probably 
gliding with the waves for some distance
until one of the waves rolled Rappe. Thus their
body temeperatures probably went down even before
the accident, and then suddenly overturning, Rappe
found himself being throughly wet, thinly clad, and in 
windy conditions, surrounded by ice floes.

Being very lean Rappe cooled down fast, so the option 
of re-entering the kayak was out within minutes, instead
Rappe, on his friend's insistance used the float in his
kayak as a mini life-raft to cling on to, but that didn't work 
either.

As far as I understand the situation, they didn't bring any
dry clothes, down jackets, or anything like that, or anything
to make fire with, and probably no hot liquid either.

They hadn't planned to stop, so they had nothing with 
them, a mistake many of us do make, when we paddle 
in familiar surroundings, close to base.


On a prefect spring afternoon,

Tord S Eriksson
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