Duane said: >The Storm Islands Rescue was an amazing read! It will generate thousands of conversations for years to come.< I think Matt had some 10,000 to 11,000 draft words originally and still, it's a long read with a little over 2/3rds of that. I think this incident was one of the first in the trend we have seen develop of experienced paddlers getting into serious trouble. That trip was planned for months to go down without mistake. Of course, the weather didn't cooperate, it never does - and on stranger tides, no less with disintegrating equipment and relationships. Matt covers off a fair bit of the gear issues, navigational errors, poor communications and poor group (or call it interesting group) dynamics. Brains are still better than brawn when allied with best-practice, mariner-like seamanship which is as important as, or more important than hard skills. But bad judgement can be perceived as good judgment at the time, especially when red flags ignored or not vetted fully for diligent appraisal, so the admonishment that it's all about judgement is only partially true. Where seasoned paddlers are often falling I believe, once all other aspects are dialled in correctly, is not dealing with stress and unexpected circumstances adequately - and not understanding any resulting stress that often undergoes intense magnification, effects one's higher cognition and the fact that these intense emotions can dramatically erode a paddler's ability to perceive truth. The three paddlers were under a lot of stress, some of which you have to read between the lines to catch; the environment was kicking ass majorly (there was complexity and chaos with critical boundaries that shouldn't have been crossed, yes, but the armchair reader probably can't relate to just how bad it was on many days); the higher centers of cognition were getting sluggish (both physical and mental abilities were dwindling); there was an overwhelming desire to get home to family and warm hearth (these were the emotional bookmarks masking the dangers when there was the sudden suggestion of the unplanned crossing); Rob had normalized high risk paddling and intense adventure and kept hoping the others and their equipment were up to the task (his meta knowledge and self-awareness based on hardcore solo-adventuring values where strength, skill, savvy and determination usually achieved all his goal-based pursuits); reason and emotion were not balanced on this trip with various contexted failures and in fact, these men were probably doomed the moment they left together for Port Hardy - a situation which Rob knew intuitively but kept ignoring or pushing for resolve. However, the trip and rescue took place and now it is the sincerest hope of Rob and Ian that others will learn from the mistakes made on this trip. That paddlers everywhere will see the need to really develop an honest, individual and group-based ability to gain the correct perceptions of who and what, and where they are so they will truly understand what's going on and what's going down, and how to manage these risks with proper perception in a changeable environment that works independently from a paddler's desires (and where the lack of ability to adapt and also change one's behaviour can have consequences for all). Perhaps any pithy questions could be directed to the Letters to the Editor section of Sea Kayaker Magazine. It is important that the privacy of the third paddler be respected. The level of difficulty and tension brining this story to fruition will never be fully appreciated by any readership. Doug *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jun 27 2011 - 23:11:17 PDT
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