Re: [Paddlewise] swim for it?

On 11/9/07, Scott Hilliard <kiayker_at_sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> >>I think too much emphasis  is put on immersion gear at the expense of
> skills and judgment.
>
>    I would tend to agree with Duane, except that I would include all
> safety equipment, immersion and otherwise.


I'm a little confused here, Scott. What are you lumping in with "safety
equipment"? Are you talking about equipment that's intended to assist
someone else or just you? Are PFDs included in your definition of "safety
equipment"? I mean, if we take this to the extreme we'd all be paddling a
4x4 with a 2x4 and wearing a fig leaf.

There should be a balance between skills, equipment and judgement. The
problem is that of those three only equipment stays the same day-in and
day-out. Every paddler has an off-day with judgment and with skills and,
with luck, both of those won't go south the same day. But if they do, if you
have some thought towards safety equipment you might come out of it alive.
To believe that you cannot - ever - be caught unawares isn't just hubris.

Two expert paddlers on the east coast owe their lives to being dressed for
immersion and having two VHF radios. For those two, both their skills and
their judgment went somewhere else (paddling a river bar with an onshore
wind and an ebb tide compounded by heavy flooding the previous week) but
their equipment summoned help and allowed them to live to wait for it to
arrive.

Now, if you're saying that everyone should garb up and load themselves down
with all their equipment for every paddle, then I'll agree. That's where
judgment comes in.

But if your contention is that simply having safety gear (whatever (*that*
is) leads paddlers into trouble I'll have to disagree. Paddlers acquire new
skills by doing things they cannot already do and that, all by itself, means
that it's dangerous. It's easy to say that your skills will save you but do
you believe that someone just learning to surf shouldn't be prepared for
immersion? I'm thinking that they're more likely to be in the water than on
it and that only an idiot wouldn't prepare for it.

As long as people attempt to do something that's beyond their current level
we'll need appropriate safety equipment and, in my opinion, also need to
encourage them to use it properly. Because they're probably going to push
their competence anyway.

Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
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