Re: [Paddlewise] Swimming Under the Golden Gate Bridge

As Pam can tell anyone (and probably frequently does) I make a poor Trip
Leader; or trip follower for that matter. Most of my paddling is solo and
getting used to a group is not easy for me. I've gone to a bunch of Port
Townsend seminars and have never once joined a group on the water. I forget
to turn on the very radio I insisted everyone carry. I am overly cautious
about some things and stupidly reckless about others. I often paddle faster
than the group and just as often dawdle along some shoreline. I have no
stars of any sort... and was conspicuously short of stars in grade school
too.

So I'm certainly no expert on group paddles; but I read Mark's essay and
then read Pam's remarks (under "HA!) and I have to wonder. Pam's points seem
to me to be right on the mark and she *is* an expert on taking seminars (as
far as I can tell she's never passed one up). She got everything right, in
my opinion. But I think there is a facet to this that everyone is passing
up.

But rather than just tell you what I think that is I'm going to babble on
for a bit. Bear with me.

When I was young... shortly after the Civil War... our society was one which
I have come to think of as "competence based". The first Project Engineer I
ever worked for had taken a correspondence course in civil engineering and
surveying. Let me emphasize that. He didn't have a BS in Civil Engineering.
He didn't have a Professional Engineerr's certificate. He had simply taken a
home study course early in his career. But here he was, responsible for
making sure that the I-405 and I-520 interchange in the Bellevue/Kirkland
area east of Seattle was built correctly and he did exactly that. He was
competent. If he hadn't been competent, home study course or not, he would
have never been promoted to Project Engineer. His competence outweighed his
lack of credentials.

Some time ago I began to realize that our society is no longer competence
based. My old boss would never be promoted to Project Engineer nowadays. In
fact, he'd barely make the grade as a technician. Our society is now mainly
credentials based. There are no longer many fields that don't have
credentials attached to them and a quick perusal of the "help wanted" ads
will quickly educate you on a bunch of them. There is the BA, the MBA, the
CNE (sadly outdated), the MSCE, the CSE, the PhD, the A+, the .... well, you
get the idea..

Shortly after I had to fire two individuals with copious credentials it
occured to me that we had a problem. These guys were clearly incompetent.
Yet they had credentials that said they could do the job. Why would that be?
That would be because handing out credentials has become a profit center. If
Microsoft or Cisco makes money from every credential it hands out - and if
other people make money training people to take those tests to get that
credential - then we might be creating a problem for ourselves. Eventually
the money wins.

If credentials are a profit center then you have to walk a fine line. If
getting the credentials is too hard then no one will bother to ante up the
money because, well, what's the point? But if they're too easy then just
about anyone can get them. And sooner or later the money becomes the point
and once that happens someone will realize that there are a lot more "just
about anyones" out there than there are people who could pass a tough test.

I think our society has gotten to that point. And I also think that the
recent economic collapse undrescores it. After all, the bankers and stock
brokers and politicians all had lots of credentials. If they hadn't they
wouldn't have gotten their jobs. And because they had credentials they must
have known what they were doing. Too bad we couldn't have just let the
credentials solve the problems. Because the people they were attached to
were mostly incompetent. But I digress....

It's undoubtedly true that you can judge a credential much easier than you
can judge competence and it can be argued safely that the Human Resources
Department of any corporation would be incapable of judging any sort of
competence at all. So credentials have filtered their way into every facet
of society until you can't do practically anything any more unless you have
some sort of credential. This includes graduating from kindergarten. And
paddling.

Now here... if you've been paying attention... is where I cleverly bring
everything together. Oh, rats... you're way ahead of me aren't you?

Mark's Trip Leader's credentials were the 5 stars and Mark's essay mentions
this several times. He even says that you just don't argue with someone who
has 5 stars. And he was right; no one did. Maybe he paid too much attention
to the stars and not enough attention to the individual who was about to
lead him through some of the most treacherous waters in North America.

Mark only mentioned what I think was the one key to this puzzle once: the TL
was not familiar with the area.

The area in question is one of the most hazardous waterways in North
America. I've been through the tidal race at the Golden Gate in 700-foot
tankers and was awed by the spectacle. No one should ever - EVER - follow
anyone through the Golden Gate in a kayak who wasn't familiar with it no
matter how many stars he has after his name. And that goes for any serious
water.Or on skis down a ski slope for that matter. Or up a mountain.

Not only that, but I suspect the TL knew he had a problem. His late start,
the constant calls to group up, the dithering around, the nervous chatter
about all the dangers they could face... all of that speaks volumes to me
that the TL was nervous about the entire trip. If he had been nervous about
one or two paddlers he could have simply told them that they were, in his
opinion, unprepared and either left them on the beach or put them into the
safety boat and continued on.

I think that at some point the TL finally realized that he was out of his
depth here and turned the group around. Too bad that turning them around
probably led them into a far greater danger than simply continuing. Who
knows what would have happened if they hadnt had that safety boat along.

The major lesson to be learned here is that the Trip Leader isn't God. He's
not the only one with the ability to judge competence and cancel or abort a
trip. Every paddler in the group has the option to turn around and walk
away. There were warning signs that Mark's TL - who may have been competent
in many things - was not competent to lead this trip; and knew it.

Credentials aren't everything. What really counts is competence. Especially
when your life is on the line.


Craig Jungers
With practically no credentials at all in Moses Lake, WA
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