Hi All, I have put this off for a long time, having a great reluctance to attack this problem in a manner that might have some chance of changing minds in the world of the numerous boating agencies that provide expertise to the general public. To this point, I seem to have totally failed to have any impact of any kind on these regulators. The message put out to the public is "on cold water, wear a pfd!" They refuse to discuss the cold water gear that we all use as a matter of routine. Our message of adequate cold water gear for cold water boating does not reach the vast majority of ordinary boaters. Without going into details here, do any of you have videos of paddlers working on recues in cold water-as for example in the "TEST YOUR GEAR" part of cold water workshops that may be run by your clubs or peer groups? Do you know of any U-TUBE or other on-line sites that present such demonstrations? I will appreciate any information you may have on this subject. Thanks, Chuck Sutherland skimmer_at_enter.net *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Chuckster, Any video of paddling in the Pacific Northwest is in fact, year round cold water boating. I remember a couple of pals who I ran the White Salmon in south central WA in August hot air temps of 90-95+ F. I wore my drysuit. The guys who wore their *boaters shorts* and shorty dry tops froze their asses off when they swam. The White Salmon is fed by glacial springs from lava tubes under mount Adams. The water is all of 40F. I still get involved in novice boater education once in a while and your tri-fold about cold water survival will be in the next Washington Kayak Club newbie series of WW clinics.I'm not a coach, but I like to keep up with the new boaters enough to make new boaters old boaters. In my opinion Chuck, you make a difference. What you do not know is how many people your mania* has influenced and how many people those folks have influenced. Cheers, Rob G * I know, I'm so PC. However, your issue is survival for kayakers in cold water and you have done a great job of disseminating the facts and realities of all kinds of kayaking, whitewater or salt water. I give you more credit than you give yourself. -----Original Message----- From: skimmer <skimmer_at_enter.net> To: nyckayaker_at_rockandwater.net; paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net Sent: Fri, Jan 21, 2011 6:42 pm Subject: [Paddlewise] cold water boating training Hi All, I have put this off for a long time, having a great reluctance to attack this problem in a manner that might have some chance of changing minds in the world of the numerous boating agencies that provide expertise to the general public. To this point, I seem to have totally failed to have any impact of any kind on these regulators. The message put out to the public is "on cold water, wear a pfd!" They refuse to discuss the cold water gear that we all use as a matter of routine. Our message of adequate cold water gear for cold water boating does not reach the vast majority of ordinary boaters. Without going into details here, do any of you have videos of paddlers working on rescues in cold water-as for example in the "TEST YOUR GEAR" part of cold water workshops that may be run by your clubs or peer groups? Do you know of any U-TUBE or other on-line sites that present such demonstrations? I will appreciate any information you may have on this subject. *************************************************************************** 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 have an older video series on cold-water sea kayaking that our club did in conjunction with the coast guard. A lot of this stuff is pre-internet mania days. I must say that for my part of the world, it's kinda like preaching to the choir. Yes, the boating public and new paddlers still need the message in their face at some point even these days, but let's face it, you have to be pretty stupid in my part of the world to not take water temps into account given the amount of education and media coverage it gets. And a PFD is just another part of the equation that is also important. Not sure what goes on over there on the east coast, but at the end of the day, it's gonna be hard to regulate immersion protection for cold water. Treat it as an important part of survival strategy, along with PFD's, but it's all part of the big picture. If you have done all you can Chuck, what else can you do? I was doing some research the other day for an editor, talking with individuals and business ventures that deal with cold water survival and rescue gear. It came to mind incidentally that our education institutions should teach school-age kids about some of this stuff. Reinforce the message before graduation. Doug Hi All, I have put this off for a long time, having a great reluctance to attack this problem in a manner that might have some chance of changing minds in the world of the numerous boating agencies that provide expertise to the general public. To this point, I seem to have totally failed to have any impact of any kind on these regulators. The message put out to the public is "on cold water, wear a pfd!" They refuse to discuss the cold water gear that we all use as a matter of routine. Our message of adequate cold water gear for cold water boating does not reach the vast majority of ordinary boaters. Without going into details here, do any of you have videos of paddlers working on recues in cold water-as for example in the "TEST YOUR GEAR" part of cold water workshops that may be run by your clubs or peer groups? Do you know of any U-TUBE or other on-line sites that present such demonstrations? I will appreciate any information you may have on this subject. Thanks, Chuck Sutherland skimmer_at_enter.net *************************************************************************** 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 looking to repeat a presentation that I ran for local sea paddlers on Cold Shock, Swim Failure and Hypothermia, as a way of educating them on the real risks they face when out of the boat. My objective is to highlight that, in our water temps, hypothermia was not likely to be the almost immeadite situation that most people think of when they consider the problems they could face. Hypothermia, or "Mountain Exposure", IS a big problem for those in trouble on land, due to our exposed conditions and sudden weather changes, and this has no doubt contributed to paddlers thinking about that. My problem is, I have lost my original presentation and there were three examples that I had used that I can no longer find. One was a situation where two canoes were being paddled on a (probably North American) lake when one capsized and by the time the other one turned around to help the paddler had died, caused by cold shock. One was a story of several US Marines (I think) who drowned on a river following a boating accident, possibly during the Second World War, swim failure. I can't remember what I used as the hypothermia example, so I'm open to suggestions. I'm hoping that the combined knowledge of Paddlewise could find these, or other, examples to help. They will be used as brief case studies to catch attention. Cheers JKA John Kirk-Anderson Banks Peninsula New Zealand *************************************************************************** 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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