--- cramersec_at_charter.net wrote: The concerns that were raised, honestly, I never really understood them, said Straus. Straus said his bill would require that kayaking students know how to get out of an overturned kayak before they go into any water deeper than five feet. A friend of mine, a local writer, took a beginner kayaking class a couple of years back as part of a story assignment. The first thing the class learned to do was wet exit. Then they were taken directly into surf without further instruction. She wrote an article about the rollicking afternoon she spent capsizing in breakers to the point of exhaustion, holding her breath, praying she wouldnbt die and finally being slammed by another kayak in the group...paddled by the alleged instructor trying to rescue her. Yes, she learned how to wet-exit. It was the ONLY thing she learned. Do we mandate everything else, too? I won't debate the issue itself (there are far more of you more qualified to do so), but rather the haste with which legislators file kayaking bills at the request of a single constituent. While wet-exit training may or may not have saved Mr. Beauvais, his widowbs assertion that his death was directly caused by a b mishandlingb of his class, and that when he capsized b There was no one around to immediately help him and he panickedb is an oversimplification. Rather than simply accepting the premise that the victim died because he couldnbt wet exit, Rep. Strauss, had he spent a few minutes in the local newspaperbs archives, would have learned that the case is a little more complicated. The victim did not die underwater or alone. A critical care nurse (also in the class) jumped in and held his head above water while the instructor tried to tow them. In a follow-up interview with the local paper she said, b He was awake. I thought he was going to be OK," but he stopped breathing about five minutes later. She performed mouth-to-mouth. The same paper, the day after the accident, described Mr. Beauvais as having "a history of asthma." Were I a legislator who had done some homework, Ibm not sure I would have been so quick to slap this restriction on the whole paddling community. Massachusetts has a rich history of ill-considered legislative filings...this is the state that wanted to make paddlers mount bright orange flags (with wobbly fiberglass poles, the kind you see on kidsb tricycles) on all kayaks to improve their visibility. Not so good for a roll, perhaps, but at least youbll track straight during the wet-exit. Caryl _____________________________________________________________ Netscape. Just the Net You Need. *************************************************************************** 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 Jun 12 2007 - 07:07:19 PDT
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