How Easily It Can Go Very Wrong!

[santaman2000]

To be honest I've only ever canoed a lake a couple of times. I found it boring. On the other hand, the river I grew up canoeing was a class 3. I started tubing down it (most often stopping at every rapids and falls to swim a bit) years before canoes became popular (the canoes didn't arrive until we were about 14 years old)

Loved diving under the falls to explore.

 

[rancid badger]

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

Well, in the context of my actual statement:

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.

Yes, I most definitely would suggest people should wear helmets when riding horses or bikes-when taking part in organised events- indeed, in this country, I doubt you would find many official events involving horse riding, bike riding or indeed white water paddling, where the organisers would allow you to take part, unless you wore a protective helmet, if only for insurance purposes.

Please yourself of course, but I wouldn't ride a horse, bike, motorcycle or paddle white water, without a helmet and whatever other safety equipment is relevant to the pastime.

 

[santaman2000]

.....Yes, I most definitely would suggest people should wear helmets when riding horses or bikes-when taking part in organised events- indeed, in this country, I doubt you would find many official events involving horse riding, bike riding or indeed white water paddling, where the organisers would allow you to take part, unless you wore a protective helmet, if only for insurance purposes.

Plain common sense.

That's likely true here as well regarding the bikes.

Regarding horses, it's another matter altogether. The judges at official rodeos and horse shows would penalize anybody not wearing a genuine felt cowboy hat.

Sad how the insurance companies and lawsuits have sucked the fun out of life isn't it. They've even caused the removal of children's playground equipment that we all got to enjoy so much. The Ocean Wave, the Merry-Go-Round, the SeeSaws; all gone now. Diving boards removed from swimming pools, etc. And we're raising a generation of overprotected kids.

But then, I suppose the very fact that something like canoeing can be turned into an "organized event" sucks the fun out too.

 

[Andy_K]

Hence the reason I have started taking kayaking lessons (only a fiver a time!), long before I actually get around to parting with any cash or venturing onto the sea and the local estuaries. When I was first considering getting myself a kayak, I didn't think I would need a PFD, helmet or anything else, to be honest with you. Then I started watching some of the beach landings on YouTube. I found amazing how people who seemed to be really good kayakers on the open water were so very easily being tumbled out of their boats because they didn't really know anything about kayaking beyond paddling out to where they wanted to fish and then paddling home again. Equally amazing was the amount of these people who had serious money's worth of fishing gear, but not a tether of ANY KIND holding it to their boat! Then I got to see one video where a fella who had a few kayaking qualifications came back from fishing and arrived at the shore of a steeply sloping beach - just like my local beach in fact. He had been out about 4 miles or so on what looked to be mirror glass water all day. But what feels flat calm in the depths can be another thing entirely when that depth of water shelves up quickly. He got rolled and was only under the boat for a few seconds. Had his head whacked against something and came out of the water hanging onto his head. It looked like he was trying to hold his wig on at first. Then amidst the "panic talk" of his friends I came to realise what I thought was a wig, was actually a large portion of his scalp in the form of a huge flap of skin and hair! The other thing that was immediately apparent was that none of his friends, nor the man in the video, had any form of first aid kit. Let alone one stored in a water tight container. Let's face it, even wet bandages would have been better than nothing for holding the skin to his head. The fella was wearing a PFD though. In the few seconds that passed, I quickly realised I would need quite a lot more kit than I had at first thought and before the remaining seconds of the video finished, I was also beginning to consider lessons and whether I could find somewhere local too. Thankfully, I managed to find somewhere I can get a lift to and the first actual question out of the instructors mouth was to ask what sort of kayaking did I want to do once I get my own boat? He then tailored what I would be taught to that usage. After all, I had already made it clear that the reason I was there was to get a good skill set under my belt before I ventured out alone and at that point I was completely uninterested in actual qualifications. Just the instructors approval that I have been appropriately trained and confident within myself of what I had been taught and my own ability to carry those teachings through to my own paddling and peddling on the water.

 

[sLAsh]

The first video makes me cringe when I see all those people pulling on the downstream side of that canoe. That canoe would have several tons of force from the river on it. If it had shifted and forced someone under they would have just had to stand there and watch someone die. Unfortunately none of them realized how much danger they were in.

 

[ZEbbEDY]

cant underestimate the awesome power of moving water

[video=youtube;iqmpWBM2bTo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqmpWBM2bTo[/video]

 

[petrochemicals]

Saw this one.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/05/video...scued-after-becoming-stuck-in-rapids-4174160/

 

[Andy_K]

How did the pope put it whilst chatting with the Queen mum, back in the 80's???

"Fornicate" that for a game of soldiers!!



My idea of a nice day on the water would be all but flat clam, nice and smooth waters. Easy paddle there and and easy one back again. Where the only sight of the local ambulance or rescue guys is if they are at the local quay ordering some burgers from our Grade A burger van

 

[Filterhoose]

Last year my better half and I paddled the Spey Descent under instruction with an experienced guide. Just as well as the lower down the river you got, boy did it speed up. With a slow start it was relatively easy avoiding obstacles in the water, trees as well as rocks, and to develop the eddy up. The Washing Machine and Knockandoo were pretty scary for us but we got through without issue. Then one mile from Spey Bay we hit and got stuck under a blown down tree. In seconds we were in real trouble as the boat filled and we were well and truly jammed in with a weight of water flowing in behind us to add to our woes. Luckily our instructor managed to get our line and free up the boat screaming 'let go' as your natural instinct is to hang on to the thing above water, the tree. Feet first we scooted down the river until we could steer ourselves into the bank. This was last week April first May and boy that water was cold.Two shivering wrecks completed the trip. It could have been worse......................

 

[Harvestman]

cant underestimate the awesome power of moving water

[video=youtube;iqmpWBM2bTo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqmpWBM2bTo[/video]

I wonder how many people died in the making of that video? I find it ironic that the ad that popped up at the start was for a retirement plan, something many of those people won't be needing.

People did portage for a reason.

 

[Filterhoose]

Radge. .

 

[Robson Valley]

The Churchill River crosses about the middle of the province of Saskatchewan. Once the most important fur trading travel route in western Canada.
For the most part, it's a series of lakes commonly connected by rapids. People do portage for good reason. Some would pound you to a pulp and hold you under until you dissolved.
Hard helmet scuba divers on cables go in there looking for fur trade wreckage.

I've had the good fortune to live on, work on (for months at a time), and fish in an unbroken stretch from Black Bear Island Lake down stream to Keg Falls. Maybe 80km, 50 miles.
I'll suggest that intense familiarity and practice = experience, contributed to success. You have to learn to read the water, learn what's under the water to make it flow the way it does.
Transport was a 21' Chestnut freighter canoe, canvas and cedar. Common engine was a long-shaft 18Hp. Go ashore, walk down and have a look, figure out whay to do.
You get the right line, turn the corner without hitting the rock wall and that puppy shot safe rapids like a bullet. No motor as we didn't have props to spare, 60 miles from the nearest road!
Portage upstream and sometimes line the boat down along the shore in the wild ones.

 

[boatman]

Kayak lessons if you want to but why if you just want to please yourself rather than go in for events?

 

[John Fenna]

Kayak lessons if you want to but why if you just want to please yourself rather than go in for events?

The point of lessons is to teach you how to control your craft so you can get max fun for min risk/effort.
Although I have never even thought of going in for events I found that getting good instruction made my paddling more fun by showing good technique. I was so impressed I "bought the company" and became an instructor myself, ending up as a Level 4 Open Canoe Coach and earning my crust during the week by teaching what I did for fun at the weekend
I have enjoyed some white water paddling (up to grade 4) but my real love has been long river descents (Wye in England/Wales, Spey in Scotland and the Orange in South Africa being my favourites) and costal paddling in a 16' Open canoe.
Without a solid basis of good technique learned from a good coach then most of this would have been a lot more dangerous that it was with the knowledge I had gained.

 

[santaman2000]

The point of lessons is to teach you how to control your craft so you can get max fun for min risk/effort.....

But part of enjoyment is often excitement; in turn excitement is risk.

 

[Robson Valley]

Here's something to put on your bucket list:

Ocean-going kayak tours will take you to many places which cannot be reached on foot.
Friend of mine goes off the west coast of British Columbia every summer.
There is an invisible crew who will have set up the night's camp and have all
the food prepared before you get there. In the morning, after breakfast, you just paddle away.
The crew comes back, removes all traces of occupation and sneaks ahead to the next stop.

 

[John Fenna]

But part of enjoyment is often excitement; in turn excitement is risk.

Agreed - but controlled or understood risk - not something you do not know is risky or how risky it actually is.
It is more fun to risk your skill against a problem than to suddenly find that what you did not know was risky is just about to kill you....

 

[John Fenna]

Here's something to put on your bucket list:

Ocean-going kayak tours will take you to many places which cannot be reached on foot.
Friend of mine goes off the west coast of British Columbia every summer.
There is an invisible crew who will have set up the night's camp and have all
the food prepared before you get there. In the morning, after breakfast, you just paddle away.
The crew comes back, removes all traces of occupation and sneaks ahead to the next stop.

So how do the crew get there?

 

[Robson Valley]

Apparently, large, twin engined boats designed for shallow water running and landings.
My informant tells me that they are practically silent running. I don't suppose that they have
to run "hot" to beat a bunch of kayak paddlers out for a good time with stops of
interest through out each day.
These are luxury cruises where evey passenger has their own boat!
My informant (another retired colleague from work) bought a new ocean kayak not
many years ago. The thing has to be 24' long. About $200/foot. Carries all
kinds of personal kit.

 

[John Fenna]

That sounds like a fun trip alright!