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Sea Kayaking Fatality: A Survivor's Perspective


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Photos and links to the Biddeford Pool tragedy last year.

Some of the commentary on message boards in the wake of that accident last year, including, at least in my view, on this very site, was pretty revolting.

Links and photos on my kayak fishing blog at North American Kayak Fishing

Moroever, on a related note, VHF Ch. 16 audio from a past boating fatality (scuba), while in progress, on Long Island Sound:

Mayday Audio.

The latter might have more than prurient interest. Making a mayday call places an understandably panicked caller in contact with the Coast Guard; as nearby boaters listen in, they can break in on the call to offer clarification and assistance, as happened in this case.

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Photos and links to the Biddeford Pool tragedy last year.

Some of the commentary on message boards in the wake of that accident last year, including, at least in my view, on this very site, was pretty revolting.

Links and photos on my kayak fishing blog at North American Kayak Fishing

Moroever, on a related note, VHF Ch. 16 audio from a past boating fatality (scuba), while in progress, on Long Island Sound:

Mayday Audio.

The latter might have more than prurient interest. Making a mayday call places an understandably panicked caller in contact with the Coast Guard; as nearby boaters listen in, they can break in on the call to offer clarification and assistance, as happened in this case.

Adam, I think that an incident like this could have happened to any of us or at least myself. I'm sure that when they launched they were more than confident in their abilities to handle the situation. Though I have read may posts on this incident I don't remember any discussing their experience. Though the victim did not have the proper kit, based on his experience I'm sure he thought he was fine.

Every time we go onto the water in nasty conditions & we return it builds our confidence which in some case may be faults. The victim may have paddled in these conditions many time with out mishap, but this time something unexpected happened. I noticed in you blog you mentioned a broken paddle, first I'd heard. That could have been it.

You mentioned the rule of three. The first thingto my mind was the British saying "three to sea".

So I think that the lesson is that no matter how good we may think that we are, we can still be taken.

Chuck

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Adam, I think that an incident like this could have happened to any of us or at least myself. I'm sure that when they launched they were more than confident in their abilities to handle the situation. Though I have read may posts on this incident I don't remember any discussing their experience. Though the victim did not have the proper kit, based on his experience I'm sure he thought he was fine.

Every time we go onto the water in nasty conditions & we return it builds our confidence which in some case may be faults. The victim may have paddled in these conditions many time with out mishap, but this time something unexpected happened. I noticed in you blog you mentioned a broken paddle, first I'd heard. That could have been it.

You mentioned the rule of three. The first thingto my mind was the British saying "three to sea".

So I think that the lesson is that no matter how good we may think that we are, we can still be taken.

Chuck

Thanks for your comments, Chuck. I appreciate especially your perspective that the more often we return okay from challenging conditions the more confident we become, perhaps to a fault.

What a horrible accident. They both seemed to have been such fine fellows.

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Photos and links to the Biddeford Pool tragedy last year.

Some of the commentary on message boards in the wake of that accident last year, including, at least in my view, on this very site, was pretty revolting.

From my perspective, I didn't think that NSPN's response to the tragedy was revolting. It is my belief that it is revolting to bring it up again with the comment that NSPN's response was revolting in order to drive people to your site.

Other than that, I don't see any reason for your rehash, there was no new insight or additional information that you brought forth.

The club's nature is to disect the the incident in order to help prevent this from happening in the future to ourself. This is simply what was done. I also don't think it incorrect to note where things went wrong in that light.

Suz

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From my perspective, I didn't think that NSPN's response to the tragedy was revolting. It is my belief that it is revolting to bring it up again with the comment that NSPN's response was revolting in order to drive people to your site.

Other than that, I don't see any reason for your rehash, there was no new insight or additional information that you brought forth.

The club's nature is to disect the the incident in order to help prevent this from happening in the future to ourself. This is simply what was done. I also don't think it incorrect to note where things went wrong in that light.

Suz

I have to disagree, Suz.

There were new photos, new links, more personal background on Tim Guttmann.

Also there was a link to a mayday VHF call made during a drowning -- which teaches what audio clipping during a frightened VHF mayday sounds like, and how other boaters, by virtue of listening in on 16, add to rescue efforts.

Monday morning quarterbacking often gets bad, and is too easy to do. There's too often Darwin award commentary after a fatality. And it happens as much here as anywhere else.

As for driving traffic to a site: where else to store that many photos, links, videos and audio?

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I read through the thread from this website in the aftermath of this incident, and I can find nothing in it that I would characterize as brutal, ill-informed, or revolting. I or others may disagree with some of the perspectives offered, but I see nothing in any message here that reveals a debased character in its author. In fact, I found the thread to be generally productive, offered a variety of perpectives in a civilized forum , and think that the disinterested paddling newcomer, unencumbered with the personal baggage that attends long membership in an organization, would find this thread to be generally informative and civilized , and might well come away with some valuable perspectives . In this sense, the message board, this thread and this club have done okay.

I would also be reluctant to label remarks found here as Monday morning quarterbacking. People naturally want to share their perspectives in the aftermath of such an event . Even if they haven’t had the experience of a fatality (personally, I hope to avoid the experience for a little while yet ) they still may have some perspective, anecdote, or snippet of technical information that could shed some light, however dim, on the proceedings. An incident posted on a message board presumably is done so to invite such discourse. That’s what a message board is for.

If one were to describe the Darwin Award mentality as the viewpoint that : an individual went into a given situation unwisely which led to their demise, therefore the responsibilty is chiefly their own : well, one may agree or disagree , but it is one more perspective among many that deserves to be considered.

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