Stuff happens

The title says it all

Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador purchases kayak books and contributes them to the public library system for the benefit of all kayakers in the province. I checked this one out to have a read. Its a bunch of short stories of kayak incidents from which we can all learn.

One of the common threads that runs through most of the incidents is that mostly inexperienced kayakers are involved. Some of the mistakes they made include:

• not wearing a PFD (can you believe it!);
  
• paddling in conditions in which they were inexperienced ;
  
• going out without thermal protection;
• paddling without a spray skirt;
• failing to to check the weather forecast before putting in;
• overestimating their ability to deal with challenging conditions;
• paddling without a means to signal for assistance such as a VHF radio or flares;
• failing to practice realistic rescues in conditions.

Some, and there are more, of these mistakes were not limited to inexperienced paddlers. Some paid for their mistakes with their lives.

I think this is a must read for all paddlers and particularly for people doing basic kayaking courses. I occurred to me, however, if someones is dumb enough to go paddle in cold waters without thermal protection, they're not likely to take the time to read this material. We see them on the water from time to time and have found that they are pretty touchy about having safety issues pointed out. But, we should continue to preach the safety gospel if for no other reason than to fulfill our responsibility as experienced paddlers. Maybe we'll save one life.