It is time once again to send out a reminder to all paddlers to cue into paddling safety. Regardless of how experienced you think you are: serious injury or even death awaits you the moment you become complacent or negligent toward your assessment of paddling conditions or the state of your safety equipment. kayaking is an inherantly dangerous sport and can catch even the most experienced paddler off guard. I do not recall any particular kayaker death during 2008 that stood out in the news but I do recall that there were a few. Read a few of the stories by following the links:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b7d4ee3b-77d6-45fc-a135-b839be678e1d
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/rogue_river_conditions_prevent.html
http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-jul0708-kayaker_body_found.32346137.html
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6234096
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10512082
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/04/father-of-two-d.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/19/2369070.htm
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/11/a_florida_real_estate_broker.html

As you read through these news stories, you will be tempted to think that this kind of incident happens to other people. I am living proof that it can happen to any one of us out of ignorance, inexperience (not the same as ignorance) or worse, complacency (sin of most experienced paddlers). Follow the next link to read about my own harrowing misadventure that almost took my life:

http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Trips/index.cgi/read/2522

If you are a new paddler as I was just prior to starting a long wilderness kayaking journey, you will have many issues on your mind regarding each paddling event. That nagging “what if” worry is foremost in your mind: “What if I tip, what if someone else tips, what if…”. Your best option to solve the what-if worries is to get information from reliable sources and then to train your body and mind to react quickly and properly when trouble begins. You will never become experienced enough to paddle safely and live a long life if you develop an attitude of daring-do, or believe yourself to be so damned good that you can paddle in any conditions and survive. The best of us has been fooled into such thinking and failed to survive rough ocean conditions despite decades of experience. I have most certainly lived long enough to read news stories that didn’t make sense to me: folks with decades of experience between them paddling in rough ocean conditions with no spray skirt and because of machoistic egos, refused to express what they were really thinking at the right time: that going out on the water was a bad idea. Since my own harrowing misadventure, I have not taken risks into the unknown without information as to potential hazards, be they weather or water. I have stopped paddling to talk to locals in unfamiliar areas so that I could be properly informed of water conditions ahead. I have aborted day trips and longer adventures due to foul weather. I have delayed progress along rivers so that I could study water conditions ahead when I had doubts, even getting out of the kayak to walk along the shore to study the situation. I remember that during my river trip of 2008 I had to stop and put on more safety gear because I was about to pass through rough water conditions that caused me to doubt my situation. That particular situation turned out to be not quite as bad as I imagined but had it been so or worse, I was prepared. How do you prepare for trouble when kayaking? Read some of the tips provided through the following links:

http://www.oceankayak.com/basics/kayak_safety.html
http://www.frontenac-outfitters.com/onlinetutorials.cfm?ID=10
http://www.vikingkayak.com.au/kayak_safety.htm
http://www.wakekayak.org/docs/KayakResourceList-4.pdf
http://www.atlantickayaktours.com/Pages/ExpertCenter/Safety-Skills/Safety-Skills-2.shtml

There is never an excuse for saying I didn’t know I should have had that piece of safety equipment, especially if you are reading this article right now. Ask and you will most likely receive many answers to your questions regarding kayaking safety, especially at the Guillemot site. We all care about each other, and prefer to read trip reports about interesting kayak destinations instead of the obituaries of has-beens.

If anyone has something say to other paddlers for the 2009 season, something that will get us through to 2010 safely now is the time to chime in. I for one love reading trip reports, reports about exciting destinations and reports about routine paddling routes that speak of some interesting new experience. Over time, the more I read such reports, put out by the same old guys and gals and by newbies, the better I feel because I know that we are all doing the kayak thing right…with the appropriate skills and competency to get us through to old age.

Robert N Pruden