Re: [Paddlewise] PressHerald report today

> How do we get the word out without getting the activity over-regulated?

   The retailers in this sport have a vested interest in pushing 
equipment. It would seem that the general paddling community has taken 
their sales pitch to heart and attempted to make it gospel. The girls in 
the Portland incident no doubt considered themselves as having taken 
sufficient safety measures because they were wearing their pfd's - and 
if you listen to what the general paddling community preaches then it is 
an easy assumption to make that if one is wearing their pfd then nothing 
bad can happen. Or maybe it was just that the pfd was not enough, as 
several others on Paddlewise have attempted to infer. If they had only 
been wearing wetsuits, or drysuits, or paddling a different boat. Vhf 
radio? Pump? Paddlefloat? Flares? So they spend a ton of money and carry 
all of this crap and die anyway - what then? S*#t happens!

   What we need to do, in what has always been my humble opinion, is 
take the focus away from the equipment and put back where it belongs - 
on the skills. We need to paint this sport as inherently dangerous and 
try to get the message out that it is not about the equipment, but about 
on the water skills which include not just boat handling, but applied 
knowledge, judgment and good sense. It should be stated that these 
skills can then be backed up with the appropriate equipment, but it 
should at the same time be emphasized that the equipment alone will 
probably not save you. The way I see it is that we have three choices; 
accept the deaths, regulate, or educate. Pushing more equipment is not 
the answer.

Scott
So.Cal.
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