How Easily It Can Go Very Wrong!

[rancid badger]

When paddling moving water, an awful lot of people just don't realize how easily you can come out of your boat and end up right up sxxt creek!

[video=youtube;nG3vg3ed9Is]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG3vg3ed9Is[/video]

Anyone toying with the idea of paddling moving water without some coaching or instruction might do well to think again

cheers

Steve

 

[rancid badger]

Another example, very much closer to home, this time;
[video=youtube;GRHkwzYKmfI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHkwzYKmfI[/video]

play safe

Steve

 

[Shewie]

Good job on saving it, it's when they fold clean in half that makes me cringe

 

[Clouston98]

Aye you've got to watch it- I tipped one of the little mini kayaks once on a thing with the scouts and that was nasty. Swallowed some dirty river water and needed a hand getting out. Thankfully we've done ok in our canoe and not managed to tip it yet .

 

[rancid badger]

Good job on saving it, it's when they fold clean in half that makes me cringe

I know what you mean Rich, a bit like this:


thing is, they can fold while you're still in the damn things, trapping your legs!

Hence, carrying a good folding saw, kept easily to hand, is a sound strategy when paddling moving water.

Steve

 

[Toddy]

A long while ago, when I was learning to kayak in white water (they taught me on the River Awe ) there was a fellow who's boat got rammed onto the broken wires of one of those stone barrier things, and before he could get out the force of the water folded the boat over in half, trapping him there. He drowned trapped like that.

Always made me wary near those stone filled wire cage things.

Sometimes we need to hear and see what actually does go wrong to make us more able to avoid trouble.

M

 

[bambodoggy]

Had to cut myself out of a plastic kayak with my rescue saw once....not something I'd ever want to do again. Also took a swim just after town falls on the Dee in Llangollen and went over the weir as a swimmer.....nearest I've ever been to dying.

I've never really liked kayaks, paddled them for a job when i had to but always felt much more at home in open boats (not that things can't happen in them as shown by the below vids).

Stay safe out there people

 

[santaman2000]

Do you have a video with the rough water? Or where it "went wrong?" That looked like the way we used to play. (mind you, we didn't have a canoe full of gear; just us trying our best to flip the canoe) They got wet; big deal.

Or before you think about doing it in a canoe: http://youtu.be/gerE_El8Fhw

 

[bushcraftkid2001]

Oh, yikes! I wouldn't wanna be in their shoes.

 

[sandbender]

As with Russian car crashes it would appear that there are a huge number of canoe disaster videos out there, this compilation from the Ardeche.

[video=youtube;hf0st-eyP8A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf0st-eyP8A[/video]

Helmets people!

 

[boatman]

Not experienced with open canoes but I did wonder why they kept the open bit pointing upstream into the current. Wouldn't rotating the boat so that the hull pointed upstream have made the whole recovery effort easier?

 

[Joonsy]

Anyone toying with the idea of paddling moving water without some coaching or instruction might do well to think again

Good advice there rancid badger The power of moving water is often underestimated and beginners often don't see potential problems until it is too late. The first time I paddled a canadian canoe I made the bad mistake of reaching out and grabbing a branch of an overhanging tree resulting in the canoe instantly capsizing and ejecting me into the river. Also once having succeeded in learning how to roll a kayak I capsized one in very shallow water where my head and shoulders were touching the riverbed, i had learned in deepish water but found I could not do the roll as normal because the water was so shallow, I struggled to get out and in the end wiggled out of the canoe, in fast water I would have been pinned tight in that kayak, the big lesson was beginners can be fooled into thinking shallow water is safe but it is not always so. Moving water is tremendously powerful, a good example is weirs and sluices, often beginners like to get close to the top of them to take a look then find to their horror they are being pulled over the edge and can’t do anything about it, the current looks calm and slow above a weir which deceives people as to it’s strength and power, even motor boats have been pulled over weirs. ATB

 

[John Fenna]

Thanks to the slowest interweb in the world I cannot watch the vids ... but as a level 4 coach in Open Canoe I have seen loads of "Ooops" moments... some have been close to tragic, some merely expensive, some absolutely hilarious
Get coaching before going it alone or all of those incidents could end up in the "tragedy" bracket.

 

[rancid badger]

I'd imagine that it was partly lack of knowledge/experience, coupled with the force of the water, which looks "pretty tame" but even if the boat was in still water, it's going to weigh about 3/4 of a tonne when full of water.

It's almost like a parachute on the ground in a strong wind, the chute may only weigh a few kilos but fill it with air and try to run it into the wind.:yikes:

The lack of any additional flotation fitted to the boat, in the form of airbags, which also displace huge amounts of water, makes it even more difficult to shift.

The whole point of my thread is to illustrate, that paddling canoes, of any kind is a pastime that, unlike a lot of others, quickly takes you to levels that require you to know what you are doing and what to do when it goes wrong.

I was pretty ignorant of the actual skills involved in paddling when I started back in 2008. I wasted about 2 years trying to teach myself and learn from books and videos then gave up, almost completely as it happens, but then got myself on a basic weekend course with a local coach called Kim Bull. I've come on in leaps and bounds since then, though I don't paddle white water and won't, until I get some more coaching, relevant to the discipline under my belt.

I paddle big, open water almost exclusively, with the odd pootle up a creek now and then but I'm happy and confident in conditions on open water, that might seem a "bit much" to some folk.

[video=youtube;dD7fD9zPhQ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD7fD9zPhQ4&list=UURdd L3mkjOvJ3tAtVHpW-XQ[/video]

The conditions in the clip above developed while we were on the water by the way, I wouldn't generally consider setting out in conditions like that with an open canoe but I'm confident in my abilities and skills, to deal with such situations if they arise while on the water, as these did!.

Just as a bit of a "footnote", I now try to avoid paddling tandem. I find that the folk who might wish to join me in my boat, simply don't have any understanding of the dynamics involved, a bit like when I first took my girlfriend on the back of my motorbike "back in the day".

This is another factor that can lead to tragedy, indeed its one of the main causal factors in the incident in the first video I posted earlier.

 

[boatman]

"A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, for he'll be going out on a day when he shouldn't. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again." from The Aaran Islands by J. M. Synge

 

[rancid badger]

The more you look, the more you find;
[video=youtube;d9i7jdb1q-E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9i7jdb1q-E[/video]

It's this sort of thing, that kills those who are simply ignorant of the way moving water works. They also kill those who are fully aware too!

 

[rancid badger]

Another salutatory tale, if a bit lengthy, (this time from Finland) showing that even if you've got "qualified" cover, it's no guarantee of safe paddling.

[video=youtube;fOHrBqvDfQM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOHrBqvDfQM[/video]

There are questions to ask, as to the lack of a requirement to wear helmets and fit added flotation, when paddling an organised white water event like this, as well as the lack of a folding saw, for dealing with just such an incident.

I'd love to paddle white water but the more I think about it, the more I think I'll stay with paddling lakes and lochs!

 

[Toddy]

"A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, for he'll be going out on a day when he shouldn't. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again." from The Aaran Islands by J. M. Synge

Well said

M

 

[santaman2000]

......There are questions to ask, as to the lack of a requirement to wear helmets and,......

I suppose you'll be suggesting people should wear helmets when riding horses or bikes also?

 

[kaiAnderson]

ive canoed a ton, on lakes and canals but never really on a river. when I was in tailand someone talked me into going down some rapids (the instructor wouldn't take just one, had to be a 2 person group) I didn't really want to go but did anyway. I got capsized in a really shallow rapid and was bent right back with me back pinned to the boat and me front to the river bed and a canoe on top of me. I was pretty exhausted and couldn't get out. I almost just gave up and thought, oh well, its actually quite nice down here. I had gone past panic and gotten to still acceptance. I managed to slide me body out (im quite long legged with was the main problem) but was too knacked to do owt else bar keep me head above the water and flaot down stream. I got to shore and just walked home