Some of you may have noted a tragic accident that happened yesterday afternoon at the Philadelphia Canoe Club. A 57-yr-old woman club member, long-time white water paddler, skilled at rolling, was practicing rolling in a new ww kayak near the club dock on the Schuylkill River. It appears that no one was watching her until someone noticed she was upside down in the river. She was pulled out of the river by club members and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Speculation was that she had accidently folded the skirt release strap inside the boat and was subsequently unable to get the skirt loose to bail out. Medical problems are not known at this time. No details are available at this time. Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 4:19 PM, skimmer <skimmer_at_enter.net> wrote: > > Speculation was that she had accidently folded the skirt release > strap inside the boat and was subsequently unable to get the skirt > loose to bail out. Medical problems are not known at this time. > > I've done this myself. And I bet I'm not the only one. Worse yet, I wear tight white water spray decks even on my sea kayaks having decided some time back that the ingenue-look of a strap hanging down over my shoulder didn't fit my style. Of course, it wasn't a problem since I discovered it at a time when I didn't actually need it. But it could just as easily been a problem. A "whiffle ball" fastened to the spray decks loop might be a solution to this problem. I've had decks I've done this to but have backslid lately. I'll have to fix that. The large ball is easier to grab than the loop and you're more likely to notice if you've mistakenly fastened the spray skirt with the ball inside. A good, tight fitting, spray skirt can actually create a vacuum inside the boat and make it impossible to get the skirt off unless you poke your hand down the tunnel and let air in. Once you do that then it's relatively easy to get out. But if you wear a drysuit that has a skirt that comes over the tunnel to your spray deck then you could have some real problems getting out. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I'm glad my spray skirt has a mesh pocket on top that should I leave the loop in I could wrestle off the skirt with that. Only a few times have I ever looked to find I've left the loop in, but we're all human and thinking what to do in this kind of situation is a good thing to do ahead of time! Seems another good reason to carry a knife. A sad story all the same, but maybe it will save a life or two in the future Mark Sanders *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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