Its kind of interesting - I completely agree that safety is a prime consideration in paddling. I now wear a PFD (though I’ll admit for nearly 20 years I wore one only if I thought I might get into a “dicy” situation - and in all that time never had to swim. No false sense of security, I guess). I carry a throw rope and practice with it from time to time, wouldn’t think of getting in a canoe if I was afraid of water or swimming… In short, like youse guys, I’m a modern paddler.
AND YET
We are the inheritors of a long and proud tradition. North American was explored and for hundreds of years, longer than the US has been a country, routinely traveled by canoe. And for a hundred times that long by native Americans in frail birchbarks… (Or in kayaks on icy oceanic waters) In the cold, without PFDs, drinking their allotted portions of rum for lunch, not dressed for immersion, and not uncommonly alone. The voyageurs were encouraged and hired not to be swimmers because it was felt if they didn’t fear the water enough (had a true sense of security), they would run the risk of paddling in rapids or large waves, thereby endangering their cargo. Crosses were erected at portages, the trail often beginning feet away from the lips of unrunnable rapids, to those who died from missed landings - though by so doing they probably avoided a slower more painful death by strangulated hernias.
But they were free of regulation. Free to choose their own risks and live or die by their choices, to walk the line without a net. No L. Erie swimming rules. And that freedom echos and is still felt by paddlers. And it should be.
As with mountaineers, risk assessment, skill building and accurate self-evaluation, and good judgement is a big part of the game. Frankly, I’m not sure that can be taught without taking some risk. “Book learning”, instruction, is only a start. But, as is suggested here, it still should be encouraged.
To fall back on the (weak) driving analogy - we do require driver’s ed, a driver’s test, a license to drive a car. All that doesn’t make a person a good or a safe driver. But its a start. Would we really feel good if it weren’t?
So for safety’s sake should we do the same for paddling? That sounds a little like where this is heading. Is that where we really want to go? Is it unsafe and a disgrace to our sport to paddle without a merit badge? Need the qualified instructor’s permission to paddle? How about to go outside? I hate to think so… Is the hair on the back of your neck standing up also? What say you qualified instructors?
No, like the voyageurs of old we need to accept that there is risk that we, or anyone else who chooses to paddle, needs to accept and learn to handle. That acceptance and knowledge is ultimately one of the long term rewards of paddling. It forever changes our approach to life in general and we’re better people for it. There’s a responsibility to accept risk from an informed position that goes with the privilege to venture to all the wondrous places paddling takes us. We need to accept that there will always be some who “miss the landing.” After doing what we can to warn those who are skirting the edge, after making darned good and sure we aren’t doing so ourselves, we takes our own chances and pays our own dues.
And try not to judge others harshly for doing what paddlers have done for centuries. With luck they’ll come around.
