nice article
shows how launch conditions can be deceptively different. Good list of suggestions in the first article.
Need a larger sample size to draw conclusions from 2nd article- if your female, 30-39 years old, don't drink, paddle a raft on the ocean for more than 500 hours and wear your pfd you should be safe assuming you don't have a heart attack, seizure and dress to avoid hypothermia. Statistics are useful but can be deceptive. I like the idea of boater education. I can see how registration could help the statisticians but I don't believe it will necessarily improve paddler safety unless the money is used directly for paddling education programs- like the aca provides. Putting numbers or stickers on my boat won't help me stay warm, negotiate rough conditions, or prevent me from drinking beer.
uh, no, it isn’t.
I’m not sure you understand what “callous” means.
not that thin
"Is the margin of safety that thin? a squall rolls into a protective cove, creates chop, with an out flowing tide and the result is that two perish. Perhaps there is a big difference between the perceived danger (low) and the actual danger (high) for this environment."
The dangers are real, but the margin of safety is only as thin as you make it with your preparation, training, and decision-making. Most of the dangers in sea kayaking are low-probablility and high consequence. People can paddle for decades in a t-shirt and never die, but when they have an incident, it could possibly be fatal. Fortunately there are things we can do to change the consequence-end of that equation. If sea kayaking were inherently and uncontrollably dangerous we would see deaths involving the well-trained kayakers who regularly do more challenging paddling - surf, tide-races, exposed shorelines, offshore islands, etc. But we don’t. Those paddlers are very rarely involved in incidents, and I’m not aware of any fatalities by a sea kayaker in Maine who had even a few days of professional instruction. Incidents in sea kayaking invariably involve people who are poorly prepared and often have little or no training. They are sometimes “experienced” but experience means doing something many times. It does not necessarily mean knowledgeable, skilled, or trained.
Unfortunately this recent incident does not seem to depart from the trend. There is a perception that guide licensing is the same thing as training, but it unfortunately is not. Licensing does not require any on-water training or testing. Few guides learn how to roll, and many guides wear street clothing when guiding others.
The danger, in my mind, with this incident is that people will conclude “If this happened to a guide, then I guess sea kayaking is dangerous, and bad things just happen sometimes.” Instead I’d like people to think about how they can keep themselves safe. People with a high level of training are doing more technical paddling in higher consequence environments, generally without incident, so certainly you can paddle in a protected area and appropriately prepare for the dangers there.
There are dangers in every outdoor sport, and there are best practices in every outdoor sport that are designed to mitigate those hazards. Let’s use this incident as a reminder that just because we haven’t gotten hurt yet doesn’t mean we’re doing it right. Just because we’re doing it like most of the other people we see doesn’t mean we’re doing it right.
Get training for the kind of paddling you want to do. Practice your rescues in the conditions you might find yourself in. Keep a VHF or PLB handy in case everything else goes wrong.
temps
Many who use paddle craft are totally ignorant of the dangers of hypothermia. I think labels should be on all paddle craft. Will everyone heed the warning no but some will.
I am not going on media
I got to talk to some locals and was there. Very small operation more like family. They never led ocean tours in singles.All the boats here were singles.
its a shame for the outfitter also was the primary source for bike rentals on Schoodic, which is a newly developed area of Acadia. We rode some of the paths which were nearly empty of cyclists.
BTW the kids were swimming at the beach in Corea…
I don’t think immersion gear is always necessary near shore if nothing else goes wrong. But it did
Paddledog I am glad you are perfect. We need more of you.
Perfect
That's why you wear immersion gear things go wrong. Things are not perfect all the time. Close to home don't wear you seat belt
There were major failures contributing to near three fatalities.
We already know the answer to this one
"It’s another typo that spell check didn’t catch."
I don’t buy it.
Take aways
Fact is we will never know the exact conditions that the group encountered. The pictures Kayamedic supplied show a passive environment similar to what I have experienced on Deere Isle. I will say that the Marine VHF needs to be on you and not in a dry bag. Carrying a PLB is a good choice and may have made the difference here. Remember PLB’s can be used for other activities such as hiking to. I currently don’t have one but will be getting one. As for the dry suit issue(I have a GFER) but when the air temp reaches 70 they get warm and uncomfortable.
Maine Guides
The Maine Guide approach is admittedly different from the BCU or the more advanced levels of ACA work, including the wet work. I have been in classes with Guides and been taken by surprise in the different experience in wet work than I expected.
But as I understand it, the test for it is also one that a lot of people have failed the first time because it involves talking about solving a difficult problem on the water. Unless the Maine Guides I have spoken with misrepresented.
There have not been a raft of deaths on guided trips, partly due to what you (Nate) mention. Sea kayaking has high margins for error compared to whitewater where things can go very bad within a few minutes. But it is also due to the judgement of Guides generally being reasonable. As has been pointed out exuberantly by some folks above, there are precautions that may have altered the outcome. But to me this is not the same as the last two deaths I know of in the MDI area over the last few years. One was an older woman who went out in a Swifty to a island well offshore. The other was a young man who took a rental Swifty out into some particularly rough areas around MDI, on his own.
That said, I am also looking at some options due to this incident. I was in Hamilton Marine a couple of days ago looking at VHF’s that are rationally sized for a person of smaller stature. It turns out that it is becoming more standard to get a package that is waterproof, floats and has a DSC function. Red distress button on the side, it won’t call the Coast Guard. But once you get a number for your unit from Boat USA or the other major organization, one push of that button will send your GPS coordinates to any local network.
I think that this is a very good idea, right now they run around $199 for one and more promise to have this function by this fall.
Not if you roll
Maine waters and not being able to roll is a tough combination, warm air and still chilly water in the summer. Rolling takes care of it.
Guides and VHF
You are correct that people do fail the test. I agree that the test is hard, and I don’t think it’s not relevant, but it’s far from complete. There is no comparison to the ACA and BCU certifications because there is absolutely no on-water portion of the Maine Guide certification.
The GPS-DSC equipped radios are indeed a good thing to consider, and the prices are more reasonable than when I adopted this technology 2 years ago. They do not broadcast your distress signal to a local network. The digital distress signal is sent to every radio within reception, including the USCG, regardless of what channel any of the radios are tuned to. Your position will be displayed on every DSC equipped radio within 5-30 miles (depending on line of sight and height of your radio at the time), and in Maine, that position will also be displayed on a USCG console because the USCG has very large ears along the Maine coast.
Exactly my point Celia
If your a paid guide a solid roll should be mandatory. No excuses.
I must have read at least a couple of stories in the Deep Trouble books of not having a VHF on them caused huge problems too.
So the Hamilton Marine guy misspoke
on the USCG. Either way, it is a hell of an idea. Every radio within hearing is a better way of phrasing it than how I tried to summarize it with local networks.
roll
IF you can roll in 5’ waves does it help the others with you?
you need to have the skills necessary
for the environment you are in. If you're "guiding" you need to have the capacity to help others.
We don't know the exact situation. There are plenty of instances when a roll could fail- like when panic sets in for a swimmer and they grab hold of you, your paddle, or the boat. Perhaps conditions were just overwhelming making a roll difficult. It's all guessing on our part.
A roll is a great tool but in the end it is only a tool. My credo now is to only paddle where you are willing to swim. It limits me some but so far it has kept me in one piece. For long term survive-ability you need a good plan B.
If you don't take that perspective then you need to be supremely confident in your ability to get or stay upright and to stay in the boat. I don't ocean kayak but I would think that if things are dicey enough to capsize then self rescue, including rolling, would be more difficult because of the conditions.
At some point I'll probably try coastal paddling in Maine. It is astonishing beautiful, and a completely different environment and type of paddling than what I do but at some point I would like to paddle there.
This tragedy has raised my awareness about what I don't know, what I need to learn and do, so that I can stay safe. I'll be sure to enlist others to help accomplish this future goal but will bring my own judgement to the table.
Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Perceived and actual risk don't necessarily coincide. I just think that was the case here. An ebbing tide, cold water, and sudden shift in weather weren't obvious and therefore overlooked.
Skill can overcome a lot but not everything. Judgement is the other part of it. Be vigilant on the water because "stuff happens".
YES
Of course it would have helped the others if the guide could roll as he then could have used his VHF to call for help. The ones in the water wouldn't die right away with a pfd on.
Staying in your boat makes ALL the difference. How many people are paid guides here that cant roll? Anyone ? Rolling isn't some kind of parlor trick (I have had some say that too me) . It makes you MUCH safer paddler. If you don't agree fine I just hope your not a paid guide.
Oh if your roll can fail then you need more practice. You should be able to roll both sides of kayak both forward finishing and layback.
what do you think?
is it easier for you to help someone when you're in your boat, or when you can't stay in your boat? I'm not sure how to break the news to you that guides take people with them all the time who don't have a bombproof (or any) roll. Someone with your seat time should know this.
Also - keep your seatbelt on until you pull into the driveway, most accidents occur within 5 miles of home.
Honestly - you need to pause before hitting "post message".
conjecture aside
Someone here posted a silly article from Outdoor Magazine article schlepping all sorts of gear - radios, PLBs and the like - and their “success” story was that they were able to successfully pester the Coast Guard for a rescue. Again I’m not commenting on this incident, but if I had to choose between skills/experience, or relying on gear, I’d choose the former every time.
Local Knowledge
Is what I respect the most and increasing the probability of surviving out in the ocean is what I strive for. So I make it a point to observe and talk to experience paddlers wherever I’m visiting and learn from them as much as I can about water conditions. Tips I’ve gathered from them have helped me considerably. On one of my visits to Bar Harbor, ME, I saw a solo Hawaiian outrigger canoe being paddled by a popular boat builder in the area. Now that would be my boat of choice, since I’m very familiar with it. Sorry, but I’m not familiar with seakayaks.