Boatwerks.net

This goes along with a post a few weeks ago and thought it was a pretty good read.

http://www.rapidmag.com/blogs/46-off-th ... taboo.html

It draws some interesting parallels between mountain climbing and paddling that I'd never thought of.

Everyone should do there own thing as long as they are comfortable with it and the consequences.

and remember - I can put my arm back on, but you can't, so play safe! (someone please tell me you remember where that line is from!)

Dan Caldwell
Rapid Media TV Guy

Yeah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GN9dANKe_Y
Great quote Dan!

[quote="Boydo"]Yeah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GN9dANKe_Y
Great quote Dan![/quote]

That was, say, 20 years ago! Good job Boydo for remembering that silly ad on TV... --C.

Errr... Early 80s in fact: almost 30 years ago. How old are you Mr. Boyd?

Let's not fuss over age.

Lets just do what Hal Johnston and Joanne Macleod suggest and keep fit and have fun.

Dan Caldwell
Rapid Media TV Guy

Lets just do what Hal Johnston and Joanne Macleod suggest and keep fit and have fun.

Even I know that one.

christiang wrote:Errr... Early 80s in fact: almost 30 years ago. How old are you Mr. Boyd?

Old enough to remember that one from my Saturday morning cartoons

great article.

I thought the article was generally very good, but missing one really important thing...

Changes in the river... ie. wood.

I've seen three separate instances where a person has been caught in wood, and if there hadn't been other people around for a rescue, the situation could've proved fatal. In two of those instances the wood was in inconsequential rapids that had been run already by the group on previous trips, and there was no scouting (nor any reason most boaters would likely ever scout). At the time, in neither instance could I see people in the group considering running those river solo, but now... maybe.

I don't disagree with the article that there are lots of group setting accidents, and there are reasons to think that accidents can even be more likely in a group setting (although that's mostly just the laws of probability), but there is a different kind of risk that people take when paddling solo... it's the risk where you're increasing the consequences of unpredictable, stupid, sh*tty little things that just happen sometimes.

The following is from an article by Doug Ammons, and although he's not talking about solo boating, I think it's something to consider when boating solo (his Lesson 1 might not be true of all the recent deaths, but it certainly was the norm for a long time):

Lesson 1: Virtually no deaths happen on cutting edge whitewater. Essentially all of them
occurred on rapids that were well within the abilities of the kayakers.

Lesson 2: While we believe we have an acceptable level of control on the river, in
virtually every case there was something additional that occurred which the paddler couldn’t
have prepared for.

Lesson 3: You can die in a simple rapid. The flip side of this is, you also can get away
with the most astonishing misjudgments and errors. There is no accounting for this, but a
prudent person would choose good judgment and fewer errors as the way to go.

Lesson 4: Error cascades: When one thing goes wrong, it often leads to another and
another in what I call an error cascade. The water magnifies each error and carries it into the
future in a powerful way. The key in kayaking is to stay in control, and when that isn’t
completely possible, to quickly bring any mistake back into control. In a sense, a major part of
kayaking includes the skills of constant and creative correction to keep from falling into an error
cascade with a bad ending. You should assume that any error cascade may have a bad ending.

Lesson 5: Very infrequently, in the wrong spot, even one simple decision can lead to an
error that is not retrievable. Most unfortunately, those are almost always spots that you cannot
see ahead of time: a thumb-sized stick that catches your life jacket, an underwater obstruction, a
rock with a crack just wide enough for your paddle blade if it comes in at just a particular angle,
or another that just fits your foot if you happen to be swimming and kick at that particular instant
at a certain water level. Accidents are always somewhere in the details.



I like boating solo sometimes, and I don't think people should be disuaded from it like it's some kind of taboo. I just think solo boaters should be paranoid about wood... all the time.

I agree with the wood situation, even in class 2-3 stuff.. Usually.. when I know a river has gone way up.. I will stop and scout the sections where I know a tree can get lodged.

For instance, In my backyard run, The Petite Nation - Portes de l'enfer Section (which is all around Class 3 at the most on regular flows), you usually run left of the boulder when entering the First Canyon as on the Right are the ruins of an old dam and there are re-bars and cement and such. and they stick out at low water (50 cms and less)..
At high water, they are under water but it becomes a decent size hole which most boaters will try and avoid, hence..forcing them once again to run left of the boulder.

But at higher flows( which becomes alot bigger and more pushier during spring).. trees usually get pinned there. (See pictures).
Yeah.. Theres one eddy on the right that we catch to scout above it all.. But I usually take an eddy on the left right before entering the canyon and wait for other boaters to come down. The thing is.. that eddy gets smaller and higher flows and IMO, it would be a real pain to get out of your boat and try and find a place to walk back up without running the canyon if not nearly impossible at higher spring flows and some boaters still have a hard time doing read & run, catching eddies and making ferries under pressure.

For an experience boater.. It would be easy and manageable to avoid but this river is mostly ran by beginners, intermediates. forst timers and open boaters year round. Or me as The river crosses our farmland. hehe

The entrance to the Gorge at 35 cms.



The entrance at flood flows over 90 cms.

For the most part a good article, what I didn't like was using the argument that because 4 deaths this year where all with groups then in makes no difference if you paddle alone. I have been in more than one situation where a group member was able to save anothers life and know of friends who have had similar experiances. Sometimes there is nothing anyone can do to save a friend in trouble but there are lots of situations where they can do something and save lives. It also seems to me that 99% of whitewater kayaking is done in groups so it makes sense to me that there are more accidents in groups than as indiciduals.

I think it is important to identify those situations where friends might not be able to help you, maybe your running a large volume continous river in flood making it very difficult to rescue a swimmer, or maybe your running a waterfall with a cave unreachable by a rope. In thos cases it might be best to treat it like you are paddling alone and paddle a little more cautiously.

I have paddled alone a couple of times and it can be alot of fun, once it was on a run I had done a few times well within my ability, I took it slow and scouted lots, just to refresh my memory and check for wood. Another time was on a second lap of a run I had just done and couldn't convinve anyone to go with me, again the run is challenging but within my ability.

It really just increases the risk when paddling, so either you are comfortable with the added risk or you can mitigate it by going slower and paddling easier runs. I would alwasy rather paddle with a friend it is more fun to share the experiance with some one. Whenever I have paddled alone it's mostly because I can't find anyone to go with.

I can't seem to shake the irony of Hendrik Coetzee's death... He was known for paddling solo in extreme conditions, and was pulled down by a crocodile on flatwater, while his friends watched, horrified and powerless... --C.

Lesson 4: Error cascades: When one thing goes wrong, it often leads to another and
another in what I call an error cascade. The water magnifies each error and carries it into the
future in a powerful way. The key in kayaking is to stay in control, and when that isn’t
completely possible, to quickly bring any mistake back into control. In a sense, a major part of
kayaking includes the skills of constant and creative correction to keep from falling into an error
cascade with a bad ending. You should assume that any error cascade may have a bad ending.

Excellent points Bobbie, having spent some time in other 'extreme' sports - rock climbing, ice climbing and scuba diving - these conversations are not limited to kayaking. I have spent many hours reviewing accident reports (the Alpine Club of Canada has excellent resources on this, as do many SCUBA diving agencies), and the 'cascade' effect is common thread in many of the accidents. What is one non-fatal error is compounded by other non-fatal errors resulting in a cumulative fatal effect. I have experianced this myself with a few 'near misses' and can recall stories from many freinds that also have a cascade effect.

While not limited to paddling solo, this effect should be noted when making decisions - such as starting late in the day running out of sunlight, paddling regardless of not having remembered the floatbags / knife / throwbag / helmet / breakdown paddle, not remembering to leave a trip plan with someone, deciding not to scout, ect. All minor events that can cascade into a much larger incident. These events are often recalled with the thought of 'hindsight is 20/20'

"Never paddle alone....unless you're by yourself"

Bobbie wrote:I thought the article was generally very good, but missing one really important thing...

Changes in the river... ie. wood.

I've seen three separate instances where a person has been caught in wood, and if there hadn't been other people around for a rescue, the situation could've proved fatal. In two of those instances the wood was in inconsequential rapids that had been run already by the group on previous trips, and there was no scouting (nor any reason most boaters would likely ever scout). At the time, in neither instance could I see people in the group considering running those river solo, but now... maybe.

I don't disagree with the article that there are lots of group setting accidents, and there are reasons to think that accidents can even be more likely in a group setting (although that's mostly just the laws of probability), but there is a different kind of risk that people take when paddling solo... it's the risk where you're increasing the consequences of unpredictable, stupid, sh*tty little things that just happen sometimes.

The following is from an article by Doug Ammons, and although he's not talking about solo boating, I think it's something to consider when boating solo (his Lesson 1 might not be true of all the recent deaths, but it certainly was the norm for a long time):

Lesson 1: Virtually no deaths happen on cutting edge whitewater. Essentially all of them
occurred on rapids that were well within the abilities of the kayakers.

Lesson 2: While we believe we have an acceptable level of control on the river, in
virtually every case there was something additional that occurred which the paddler couldn’t
have prepared for.

Lesson 3: You can die in a simple rapid. The flip side of this is, you also can get away
with the most astonishing misjudgments and errors. There is no accounting for this, but a
prudent person would choose good judgment and fewer errors as the way to go.

Lesson 4: Error cascades: When one thing goes wrong, it often leads to another and
another in what I call an error cascade. The water magnifies each error and carries it into the
future in a powerful way. The key in kayaking is to stay in control, and when that isn’t
completely possible, to quickly bring any mistake back into control. In a sense, a major part of
kayaking includes the skills of constant and creative correction to keep from falling into an error
cascade with a bad ending. You should assume that any error cascade may have a bad ending.

Lesson 5: Very infrequently, in the wrong spot, even one simple decision can lead to an
error that is not retrievable. Most unfortunately, those are almost always spots that you cannot
see ahead of time: a thumb-sized stick that catches your life jacket, an underwater obstruction, a
rock with a crack just wide enough for your paddle blade if it comes in at just a particular angle,
or another that just fits your foot if you happen to be swimming and kick at that particular instant
at a certain water level. Accidents are always somewhere in the details.



I like boating solo sometimes, and I don't think people should be disuaded from it like it's some kind of taboo. I just think solo boaters should be paranoid about wood... all the time.

My paddling is almost always solo. Thought this was an excellent excellent post. Thank you!