RE: [Paddlewise] Danish dragon boat, some answers

Pam can rescue me anytime. Food for an army, eh? I'm usually famished after
an epic rescue.

Anyway, my last post may or may not resonate with other paddlers but
certainly it is a truism I should have emphasised more that there are always
consequences to the decisions we make both before and after leaving the
beach. 

There was talk recently about trying to get the Storm Island Rescue into
print again because as Matt noted, there was a huge educational component
regarding group dynamics that rarely gets mentioned in safety articles and
part of that includes paddler misunderstandings, differing perspectives, as
well as the ability for speaking up for yourself or simply learning to say
no. One of the participants in that incident learned, for himself, this most
important aspect of saying no - of letting your feelings be known and acting
upon them. His number one rule now is "if in doubt, don't". And don't ever
let anyone throw you into a deficient boat or a place you unwittingly in a
dangerous situation. Just say no. No means no. Go, no go. There is a no in
there for a reason.

Craig, I certainly don't miss my woollies, though interestingly enough, I'm
back full circle to wool again, with Merino wool this time. I do miss the
raw lucidity of those early days where for me, no often meant maybe and the
more time I spent on the water (or in the water as the case may have been)
challenging conditions solo would equate to an increasingly intense
individualism that further begat the same attribute. There were dumb risks,
stupid risks, balanced risks with the reward being a high fun quotient, and
risks that only you knew had a good probability of placing you out on the
edge for a sustained timeframe - but a risk you knew you would likely
survive while gaining unique experiences and experience. 

It's late and I have to get back to gluing a proboscis paper-mache beak on
the mask of one of my daughter's eagle-like outfits for a party tomorrow. I
think she's glad I'm still around and didn't become a banquet for crabs
while the seas were whooping my ass years ago. Pam's right of course, it's
all about making it back home safely, 'cause when paddlers do expire
prematurely, the ones left behind are the ones who really suffer. There's no
risk versus reward for them, even if I am a little grumpier these days
sitting around on the couch on that same ass avoiding big water.  

DL
 

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 9:11 PM, <Pamvetdr_at_aol.com> wrote:

> . Someone on this list who
> shall remain nameless has twice put me in a leaky boat and/or one with
> insufficient floatation and no bulkheads, and I let him do it. I hope I
>  have
> learned better now. No crisis either time but at least once, some of that
>  was
> luck.
>
> I have no doubt at all that no one on this list is in any doubt as to who
that "nameless" person might have been, so let me just say in my defence (at
least of the leaky kayak incident) that neither of us had any idea of the
extent of the leaks (there were seven - count 'em - seven holes in that
Mariner Coaster; that we never got further than 25 feet from shore, we were
both in drysuits with appropriate layers, I had a cell phone in a
water-tight container, and Pam carries enough safety gear to rescue an Army
regiment and feed them for a week.

I don't remember the no-flotation one but I do remember the boat with the
skegbox that leaked enough to make it unsafe which we discovered immediately
after being in Deception Pass.

Have we all done stupid things? Sure. Especially those of us who were
kayaking 20 and 30 years ago. There were no cell phones, no hand-held VHF
radios, a hand-held GPS cost $3500, and wool was considered to be the most
safe clothing you could wear other than a skin diver's wetsuit. I have
personally paddled in hiking boots, jeans and a sweater with a poncho. I can
only say that most of the kayaks we paddled were incredibly difficult to
overturn and, except for Doug Lloyd, most of us were pretty cautious about
where we went and when.

However it's not 1975 any more. If we can't at least have a discussion of
what went wrong - and I don't think we can without at least some criticism
of the decisions the trip leader made - then we might as well pack it up
now.

WDR
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