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| - | ===== Pre-winter Safety Round Table Discussion ===== | + | <<stories:maui_shark_2016|Previous Story^stories:bellingham_stories|Story List^stories:best_day_2016|Next Story>> |
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| + | ===== Pre-Winter Safety Round Table Discussion ===== | ||
| **Tito, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore\\ | **Tito, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore\\ | ||
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| Quick Footnote -\\ | Quick Footnote -\\ | ||
| - | Last summer was the ten year anniversary of the death of a paddling acquaintance. I see those that were involved with the event still troubled about the situation, it truly impacted the entire southeast whitewater community at the time. Briefly, the paddling fatality took place on the local before/after work 'blast down' stretch of the Green River Narrows. Though rated class five, it's really not much harder than class three technical paddling at the normal 100% river level. 200% is totally a different game plan - five miles of solid class five moved linked together with little rest - all mistakes need to be corrected quickly and rescue is much less practicable due to the decrease to stopping eddies. 200% is ten times harder than 100%. The deceased paddler was a solid 100% paddler, no problems. He had run the river the day before he died and nailed it at 100%. The Green was running 200% the next day when he put-in with a very experienced group of well known paddlers - some of them definitely considered leaders in the sport. Some of them thought about telling him to back out before the hike in, some of them thought about it right after the launch as they paddled past the gauge, some thought about telling him to hike out as they entered the meat of the whitewater. Net upshot was no one had the conversation, the paddler missed a relatively routine ferry move and pinned vertically. Amazingly his fellow paddlers were able to scramble and get to the area of the vertical pin within a short amount of minute. Net upshot was heroic rescue measures were unsuccessful and the body was recovered several hours later when the water was shut off. Lesson learned, better to speak up and be honest in paddlesports when it comes to safety versus paying the consequences of being over your head. | + | Last summer was the ten year anniversary of the death of a paddling acquaintance. I see those that were involved with the event still troubled about the situation, it truly impacted the entire southeast whitewater community at the time. Briefly, the paddling fatality took place on the local before/after work 'blast down' stretch of the Green River Narrows. Though rated class five, it's really not much harder than class three technical paddling at the normal 100% river level. 200% is totally a different game plan - five miles of solid class five moves linked together with little rest - all mistakes need to be corrected quickly and rescue is much less practicable due to the decrease to stopping eddies. 200% is ten times harder than 100%. The deceased paddler was a solid 100% paddler, no problems. He had run the river the day before he died and nailed it at 100%. The Green was running 200% the next day when he put-in with a very experienced group of well known paddlers - some of them definitely considered leaders in the sport. Some of them thought about telling him to back out before the hike in, some of them thought about it right after the launch as they paddled past the gauge, some thought about telling him to hike out as they entered the meat of the whitewater. Net upshot was no one had the conversation, the paddler missed a relatively routine ferry move and pinned vertically. Amazingly his fellow paddlers were able to scramble and get to the area of the vertical pin within a short amount of minute. Net upshot was heroic rescue measures were unsuccessful and the body was recovered several hours later when the water was shut off. Lesson learned, better to speak up and be honest in paddlesports when it comes to safety versus paying the consequences of being over your head. |
| Unfortunately, Bellingham and now San Francisco have both had a surf ski fatality. We have also had some near misses/ close calls over the years - most years actually. But, our sport has lower consequences than steep creek paddling, crag climbing, or backcountry skiing for that matter. Sometimes getting into the woods is the easy part, getting out is tricky. If the bay is 100% when blowing in the summer, then think of it as 200% in the winter - x10 more consequences. Let's prevent near misses. | Unfortunately, Bellingham and now San Francisco have both had a surf ski fatality. We have also had some near misses/ close calls over the years - most years actually. But, our sport has lower consequences than steep creek paddling, crag climbing, or backcountry skiing for that matter. Sometimes getting into the woods is the easy part, getting out is tricky. If the bay is 100% when blowing in the summer, then think of it as 200% in the winter - x10 more consequences. Let's prevent near misses. | ||
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