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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: What if...
Posted By: Brian Nystrom In Response To: What if... (Brianne Corbett)
Date: Friday, 24 May 2002, at 2:02 p.m.
: What if you sucked in water... as many others have done... the statement you
: make below would have turned out to be quite false as things would have
: gone downhill much, much faster than they actually did.True enough, but I had qualified, trained people in close proximity. Most of us have gone through wilderness first aid and CPR training. We were also in close proximity to shore (~30 yards) when this happened.
: Indeed if you had sucked in water, the class would very likely have instantly
: turned into a CPR class where passing meant that one or more of your
: students could have gotten your body to shore and resuscitated you.
: Failure would have meant that you died... for real... not play.See above. I want to reiterate that I was assisting, not leading this class. There were two other instructors there in close proximity. When I surfaced, one of them was already there, beside my boat. Had I been a student, he would have been there sooner, but he knew I could roll and held back until he was sure I needed assistance. This was the prudent thing to do, since had he rushed in, he might have interfered with a roll or surface scull.
I doubt there is any chance that I would have died, though I don't have any desire to repeat the experience to find out.
I learned a valuable lesson that day and I'm hoping to pass it on via this and other forums. Not only will I be more careful, myself, but I'll be more aware of possible problems others may face on the water.
: Thanks for providing some outstanding support for my view that sea kayaking
: is an "inherently dangerous" activity. You may not wish to
: openly admit it... but I am satisfied that you have now lived the truth of
: my statement and shared that life experience with this group of paddlers.IMO, paddling is no more "inherently dangerous" than any other water sport. When you play in/on the water, you risk drowning, plain and simple. If you want to blow this out of proportion, that's your perogative, but I just see it as a basic truth that everyone intuitively understands.
What happened to me was the result of cold water immersion. While that may be a concern to you and I because of where we live, to someone living in the south, it's no more relevent than the dangers of driving in snow. It's up to us to understand the dangers specific to our local environment. There is no way anyone in the product delivery chain can anticipate all such eventualities and they should not be expected to.
: It may not change your views on risk or warnings... but it sure helps me to
: entrench my views with additional evidence.So, does this mean that every boat should carry a detailed warning about the gasp reflex? What's the standard, Bree? Are we sliding back to the nebulous, impractical and unattainable standard of "full disclosure"?
There is no way you could convey the gravity of the gasp reflex in a warning label in any meaningful way. It is a totally foreign experience that must be experienced, or at least seen, to be appreciated. I knew about it and thought I was adequately prepared to avoid it, but I was wrong. How do you convey that to a beginner on a warning label? You can't.
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