Re: [Paddlewise] Whirlpools and Other Dastardly Thingys

[ I've flipped the order of part your remarks so that (hopefully) my
response will make more sense.  Maybe. ;-) ]

On Wed, Dec 20, 2006 at 03:28:05PM -0800, Brad Crain wrote:
> I know our white water canoe class never covered such things.

If your WW canoe class didn't include basic instruction on how to
at least spot holes and understand their effects, then your WW canoe
class was inadequate.   One of the first things that I try to do with
new WW paddlers is to get them to swim through a (quite benign) hole so
that they get a visceral appreciation of it.  Granted, beginner paddlers
are probably not going to be capable of doing much more in a hole than
"flip and swim", but by the time they get to be intermediates, they'll
need to be able to show at least some boat control in friendly
holes and know at least a couple ways to get out of them while still
in their boats.  And one of the things that I emphasize with intermediates
is using river features (including holes) to execute maneuvers, for
example, turning into a hole's backwash to initiate an upstream ferry.
So for beginners, I think it's pretty important to prep them for all
this by making sure they ample motivation to pay attention when I say
things like "you really want to miss the hole on river left".

> Floating down the Clackamas River in summer is an urban show, with the
> ramps only a dozen or so miles from the city. It attracts many more
> recreational rafters and tubers than kayakers or canoeists, usually
> young and packing beer, noisy, etc. There is a general party atmosphere
> all summer. I believe the kayakers and canoeists generally recognize
> most of the dangers, such as strainers and rocks lurking just below the
> surface or above the surface. But I'll bet hardly any of them appreciate
> the hydraulics and dynamics laying below large vertical or overhanging
> rock formations, of which there are many.

[ quoting myself from another list late last week... ]

Circa 1986, I was on the Gauley River in West Virginia...and along
on the trip was a veteran, grizzled raft guide.  We were all pretty
busy trying not to be killed in nasty ways, so there wasn't a lot of
time to admire the scenery -- which is spectacular.  But in one of
the brief pools, one of us happened to look up and notice people standing
high above us on the edge of a cliff.  No fence.  No rail.  Nothing.
He asked the guide about it -- whether anyone had ever fallen off --
and the guide replied with one of the most profound statements I've
ever heard anyone make about risk in outdoor sports:

		Dumbf**ks deserve to die.

Of course, not everyone who dies while doing outdoor sports is stupid:
some people do everything right and die anyway.  But that's part of
the activity: those who can't accept that possibility should stay
on the couch.  And those who stack the deck against themselves,
by going out in bad conditions, or without appropriate knowledge,
or without appropriate skills, or without decent equipment, or while
intoxicated, etc., should have no complaint when nature takes its course
and culls the herd.

So I don't see a problem here that needs solving.  Moreover -- having seen
similar parades on other rivers (e.g., Delaware, Potomac, Shenandoah,
Brandywine, etc.) I can safely guarantee you that putting up signs
would have precisely zero effect on the behavior of the people most in need
of having their behavior affected.  (See above pithy comment by raft guide.)

The most likely problem to emerge -- again, based on experience elsewhere
-- is that ignorant local officials will react to The Latest Tragedy,
whatever it is and whenever it happens (and never mind that the label
"tragedy" doesn't really apply to an event in which stupid people try
very hard to kill themselves and perhaps succeed), by trying to enact
regulations ostensibly designed to stop The Next Tragedy, but having as
their main result the inconveniencing of people who actually know
what they're doing.

A local example of this is the Lehigh River in NE Pennsylvania.  The PA
state park system closes off their access points to the river -- including
one that's the only one for miles in either direction (Rockport) --
when it reaches a high enough level.  They do this in order to avoid
the costs of possible rescues as will as the legal liability.

One byproduct of this is that people like me, who are competent to run the
river at any level including well above flood stage, are barred as well.
(Yes, I've run it anyway, and no doubt will do so again.  Happily, when
it's up that high, the intermediate access point isn't really needed,
as it's possible to paddle the entire 20-mile-or-so White Haven to
Jim Thorpe run in an afternonn without much trouble.)

So...here is what will happen if signs/regulations/whatever are put in place:

	1. The people who need to pay attention to them won't.

	2. The people who don't need to pay attention to them will be
		needlessly annoyed and inconvenienced.

	3. Eventually, some enterprising ambulance-chasing attorney will
		spot an opportunity and will file a multi-million dollar
		lawsuit whose premise is "officials knew of 17 hazards
		but only posted 16 and the lack of a sign at the 17th
		is why my idiot client hurt themself there" or "the sign
		marking the hazard was underwater during the 500-year-flood
		and therefore not visible to my idiot client, who chose
		that day to be on the river" or "the sign was written only
		in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese,
		but not Urdu" or other such premises.  The ensuing litigation
		will chew up money and waste the court system's time.  It will
		also provoke more signage/regulations as well as an increase in
		the cost of someone's liability coverage.  It might also
		cause someone to set up a bureaucracy to issues "permits"
		(for a fee, of course), or which requires possession of
		"certifications" (issued by some entity, also for a fee,
		of course).  Lather, rinse, repeat.

---Rsk
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