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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
The panic reaction and a bear story
Posted By: Pamela In Response To: Re: Not quite (Robert N Pruden)
Date: Sunday, 12 December 2004, at 4:37 p.m.
:I have been surprised a
: few times in my life with how my instincts kick in to do the right thing
: when I got into trouble. This happens because I read a lot about a myriad
: of subject, survival one of those subjects, and I can apply it when I need
: to without thinking.Robert,
In my opinion, it's also a matter of experience and training. As I progressed uup my kayak learning curve, I sometimes encountered situations which, while not life-threatening, were definitely scary to a novice. My first reaction was always panic. I had to learn to take a deep breath, tell myself that panic was not a constructive solution and start to look for other options.
Spending a lot of time upside-down while I was learning to roll was excellent training for facing panic constructively.
Like learning paddling skills, you train yourself to deal with panic reactions in progressively more serious situations.
And an aside: a friend of mine who's a wilderness guide on the Yukon/BC border claims to have killed a black bear with a knife. It seems to me that it's likely a true story. The man went for the carotid artery in the bear's neck. Unfortunately, the bear took off part of his nose before he was able to kill the bear.
Pamela
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