> Goffma_at_aol.com wrote: >> Does the wet-exit demonstration requirement apply to guided >> groups? It would be a real burden here in Maine if you had to >> have the entire group wet-exit into the frigid waters before you >> could guide them around the lovely scenery. Nobody wants to >> start the day out cold and wet. [big snip] On Jun 8, 2007, at 1:11 AM, Dave Kruger wrote: > I agree it is not customer friendly to start them out wet. OTOH, they > should understand and appreciate the nature of the boat/system they > are about to use for transport. On June 08, 2007 9:07 AM Nick Schade wrote: I think the prospect of swimming in less than 55 degree water would dissuade most people from signing up for the trip even if they were promised instant teleportation to a sauna. Many of these people don't even want to get their feet wet while getting into their boats - full submersion is out of the question. This is not to say that it wouldn't be beneficial and improve safety, but it is pretty tough as a business model: We will bring you out to see beautiful things, but we first want to attempt to drown you and bring you to the verge of hypothermia. The people who are willing to sign up despite the requirement of a dunking are probably at the lowest risk of panic in a capsize, and in least need of the actual dunking. I suspect that businesses would instantly lose a significant percentage of their customers and as a result go out of business. So, the question becomes: is the opportunity to experience beautiful places worth the risk of a very small number of people dying in the attempt? I think that is up to a fully informed customer to decide. On June 15 Ralph Hoehn writes: That brings up an excellent point: in a business situation can the business be expected to take on all responsibility or does the ultimate responsibility for safety remain with the client? And to what extent is the client even able to assess the risks? A few days ago we met up with a gentleman who is planning to paddle the full length of the Mississippi in up to 90 days, starting some time in July ... after his scheduled prostrate biopsy, whatever the outcome of that. The fully decked folding boat that he intends to use is so stable that he thinks it highly unlikely to capsize during the entire trip. However, he readily agreed that it would be wise to test his self-rescue equipment in any case. There was a bit of a breeze out on the lake, so the testing even had a slight element of realism ... After receiving a brief explanation of how his deckbag-cum-paddlefloat is best deployed, he held his nose and, with some difficulty, rolled the boat over. He seemed to experience very little disorientation after his head popped back up, kept his paddle between himself and the boat while unbuckling one side of the deck bag, which he then flipped over with the other side still buckled so that he could insert one paddle blade into the bag's underside pouch. He then attached the other blade to the aft deck and scrambled back into the boat. Since he is very light and the boat fairly big, he did not at first realize that scrambling around on top of the deck as if on dry land raises even his light centre of gravity to a point where the total stability of the paddler-plus-boat is compromised. On the first go around he got away with it. The second time he did pitch over the other side -- should have put some binoculars, water, etc. in that deckbag to act as a counterweight, I guess -- that taught him a valuable lesson! He scrambled right back up though and then went over a fourth time for a final confidence booster. The water was not all that cold, but I was glad that I was wearing my neoprene farmer john! By the time we got back into the car, our friend, in light shirt and shorts, was shivering quite badly from the combined chilling effect of the immersion and the subsequent drying in the breeze. I wonder whether he would have been "fully informed" other than through this experience -- mere words might not have got the message across. I'm no friend of restrictive legislation, certainly not when it concerns personal safety -- in general that's best left to personal responsibility in my view. However, I wonder whether it is a good business model, whatever the short term profit motive, to take paying clients "to experience beautiful places" if those clients were to display a singular lack of personal responsibility by being put off the proposed trip by going through an exercise that is quite necessary to increase their safety and that of would-be rescuers if things do go wrong? Ralph Hoehn *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Jun 15 2007 - 05:35:04 PDT
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