: I hope people find some of the comments at the attached link useful and/or
: thought-provoking.

Certainly did. And the responses, too. It is interesting to see these issues
from a different perspective.

As a bit of context, perhaps I should say that I have migrated into kayaking
from other adventure sports such as caving, climbing, mountaineering,
wilderness backpacking, ski-touring ... so my attitude to a new activity
like kayaking (I do both whitewater and sea trips) is a little different
from the sort of person who takes it up "in a vacuum". For one, I am very
familiar with the benefits of being in a club! And for another, I tend to
approach the sport from the perspective of wanting to learn about the risks
in order to minimise them. If I can't see that something is dangerous, I
don't think it isn't dangerous, I just think that I need to learn to see
the dangers in order to be safe.

This wilderness sports background also predisposes me to resent authority.
Things like filing a float plan and wearing a PFD are basic, but should
never be compulsory - that just breeds resentment leading to people going
out to kill themselves more clandestinely. Its like driving - I wouldn't
dream of not wearing a seat belt, but resent the law that says I must. I
won't join the British Canoe Union because it is a "governing" body. That
may be appropriate for a controlled competitive sport, but it is the
antithesis of a wilderness activity. We have ethics, not rules.

On the other hand, I am horrified to hear that the US Coast Guard won't
accept a float plan. Such a facility should clearly be available to those
who have the sense to use it. We routinely phone the (British) Coast Guard
to say what we are doing, and phone back to say we have returned safely.
Partly this is for obvious safety reasons, and partly to prevent unnecessary
calls-out. For example, we usually have a trip in the spring to practice
rescue techniques in the sea - we do this somewhere with a reasonable
amount of swell, but within sight of a fairly touristy beach and cliffs.
With lots of capsizing, rolling, X-rescues, swimming etc, going on, it
is more than likely that a member of the public will be phoning the
coastguard to report kayakers in trouble. If the coastguard knows that
is what we went out there for, and that we have flares which we would use
if really in trouble, this avoids the wasted resources of a false alarm
call-out.

All the paddling clubs I know _which offer training_ do so under a BCU
syllabus, putting people through their one-star, two-star and so on.
Well, that is great if you like badges and certificates, but having
a piece of paper doesn't make you safe. Certain sorts of people seem
to think that it does - they concentrate more on pool-training and
passing their tests than on getting out paddling with more experienced
companions and seeing the actual environment where we will practice our
sport. If you don't visit the sea (or rivers) whilst you are learning,
you will end up with a completely false sense of confidence about how
you will cope with an incident to yourself or someone else.

My advice to people who don't like this sort of formal approach is to find
a club who don't do that sort of training. We do "practice" from time to
time, but there is no compulsion to come on these trips. The emphasis is
on getting out there and doing the sport in safety, with each new member
becoming known to the group on comparitively safe trips and learning about
each other and finding your own limits - this ensures that people aren't
tempted to go off and bite off more than they can chew on their own, and
are discouraged from going on trips where they could be a liability to
themselves and the group. I have found that this group is universally
freindly - but perhaps that is because I am the sort of person who fits
in fairly readily with this sort of an arrangement. Having easy trips
with novices helps the more experienced paddlers because they get to act
in more of a leadership role, in terms of keeping a close watch on people
and being in the right place at the right time on difficult bits. You
appreciate the hazards more for having watched over someone else negotiating
them.

Now at the end of the day, once training is available and information
is pushed out as far as can be done without being intrusive, there will
still be people who decide to go and take risks that we might consider
unjustified. Some of them are fully aware of those risks, and I feel
that nothing should be done which would prevent those people from pushing
their sport to those extremes. Some will have no idea of the risks,
despite all the effort we make to inform them. Well, that's Darwinism.

The real difficulty is with people who don't understand the risks because
they abdicate responsibility to someone else. If that person is a trained
instructor, it is perhaps safe enough, but if that person is a parent or
friend who doesn't do the sport themselves, the potential for disaster
is much greater, and the chance of getting a useful safety message across
is far less.

Andy