Ugh. They found the first guy’s kayak but not the person. The 4 year old was swimming in a creek where swimming was normal…but the creek was not normal. All close enough to make local news. My two local rivers are running at twice their normal volume plus they change every day because it rains every day. I have to give credit to our local news stations for giving a lot of water safety advice over the holiday weekend.
@TomL said:
Ugh. They found the first guy’s kayak but not the person. The 4 year old was swimming in a creek where swimming was normal…but the creek was not normal. All close enough to make local news. My two local rivers are running at twice their normal volume plus they change every day because it rains every day. I have to give credit to our local news stations for giving a lot of water safety advice over the holiday weekend.
I’ll call you and raise you with an attempted do-gooder. 
https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190525/man-nearly-drowns-in-rescue-attempt-off-sagamore-beach
sing
So sad when such deaths could have been avoided. I think another paddler, Jacob Sandy, is still missing after launching his Oru kayak on Lake Michigan on May 18. Kayak found in New Buffalo, MI, but he is still missing. No PFD.
While paddling Sunday here at home, I heard loud crying in the distance. It was a little girl on a SUP wearing only a bathing suit, about 50 yards from shore. No PFD or leg leash to the SUP. It was sunny, but breezy and chilly. Guessing water temp was in the mid 40s to 50 (guys installing docks were wearing thick wetsuits). She was scared and clearly didn’t know how to get back to shore. As I started to paddle over a parent ran from the house and an older boy who was on the shore grabbed another SUP to get to her. Not wearing a PFD of course. When I saw him reach her, I backed off. City weekend folk who don’t appear familiar with USCG PFD rules for young children. Sigh.
It does seem easy for a do-gooder to get in trouble in big water and it sounds like Rookie’s story had that potential.
That is a scary story Rookie. I know that the last two times I went down to the Lake Michigan beach the wind was blowing from east to west (opposite of normal) so it would blow folks away from shore even though the water looked pretty calm. One of the beaches just south of here was ready to eliminate lifeguards due to the cost but apparently the existing lifeguards made enough noise about the dangers that the cost saving has been postponed.
The single most important thing that the guy who taught my junior lifesaving class when I was in my earlier teens was to never, ever enter the water to save someone unless there was zero other alternative, and try never to do it without flotation for yourself. Always throw or call for help first.
It is a good lesson.
A sad reminder not only to wear a life jacket, but to check the weather report before launching your kayak.
https://www.lakeshorepublicradio.org/post/body-missing-indiana-kayaker-found-along-lake-michigan?fbclid=IwAR26IY14D47xgsQLJcLgFrp2cLynVvAJSsXfho07l1OKoHXeYX0m0__9SJM#stream/0
As I have said before (ad nauseum), spring is the killing season.
sing
These are the same type of people who always tell me. I never tip over. Its nearly impossible to tip my boat over.
@dc9mm said:
These are the same type of people who always tell me. I never tip over. Its nearly impossible to tip my boat over.
I don’t know. I don’t mean to argue but it sure seems like youthful exuberance combined with a lack of experience to even understand your own limitations…at least in the case of the young man and the young girl mentioned by Rookie. The young man put in on a Saturday and it also seems just too easy for someone to paddle on their day off when the weather isn’t immediately threatening. I wonder (doubt) if he would have changed his mind if he checked the weather report since we have basically had a chance of severe weather every day for the past two weeks. Even when I advise and caution other paddlers I worry about sounding too conservative and getting ignored completely. My neighbor asked me how long it would take his kayaking friends to go about 8-10 miles down the St Joseph river to Lake Michigan on Memorial Day. First I said 2.5-3 hours. Then I said it could be less than 2 or more than 4 depending on the wind and weather. Then I said the current is very strong and there are lots of sunken trees moving around and please tell them to wear their PFD’s and feel free to bail out early and call me if they need to. Turns out they were not beginners and had no trouble but still right now I could not be comfortable giving any advice for paddling the St Joe other than “stay off the river”.
@Celia said:
The single most important thing that the guy who taught my junior lifesaving class when I was in my earlier teens was to never, ever enter the water to save someone unless there was zero other alternative, and try never to do it without flotation for yourself. Always throw or call for help first.
It is a good lesson.
RETHROG - reach, throw, row, go.
@pblanc said:
@Celia said:
The single most important thing that the guy who taught my junior lifesaving class when I was in my earlier teens was to never, ever enter the water to save someone unless there was zero other alternative, and try never to do it without flotation for yourself. Always throw or call for help first.
It is a good lesson.RETHROG - reach, throw, row, go.
and Tow
I like Celia’s clear reminder and I’m impressed since I can’t remember much of my early training. I like RETHROG and also agree with Tow before go.
If I see someone in trouble at a Lake Michigan beach it sure seems like you’re already at the Go stage if you are not in a boat. They do have some throwables at various points along the pier and if someone isn’t about to go under I suppose you could go for a throwable if it was very close by. But none of us carry anything useful for lifesaving when we visit the beach and I think you’re supposed to not take your eyes off the victim. I suppose every case is different.
@sing said:
I’ll call you and raise you with an attempted do-gooder.https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190525/man-nearly-drowns-in-rescue-attempt-off-sagamore-beach
sing
Two men entered the water to swim out to two kayakers blown off shore? In my youth and lifeguard trained days I couldn’t catch a boat blown off anywhere.
“Having a life jacket in the boat somewhere, that doesn’t help. If you’re falling off your bike, you don’t suddenly put on a helmet. If you’re in a car accident, you don’t suddenly put on your seatbelt,” Racklyeft said. “Life jackets are cool. Drowning’s not cool.”
There are already kayaker deaths showing up in the rain-swollen rivers in regions in the Midwest and Northeast this week. One in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and another in Albion, Michigan, just in the past two days. No way I would enter a river upstream of a dam at the levels our streams have been running lately. Actually, none of our local rivers have been safe this week, dammed or not.
Pic shows the pier at Silver Beach last night with the St Joseph river on the right and Lake Michigan on the left. Normally one can walk on either side of the ridge in the middle but with the higher levels in the lake most people stuck to the middle since the sides get soaked easily. My wife and I spent about 20 minutes there and we saw a few young people go down and walk along the right side. One woman slipped and fell flat on her face and a few minutes later another fell flat on her butt. Neither hurt but both surprised at how slippery it was. Then we saw a 4 year old girl run down and right up to the water’s edge on the left. Twice. Definitely made me think about Reach and then Throw. I was surprised the little girl didn’t slide right in. All that in 20 minutes.
@Rookie said:
While paddling Sunday here at home, I heard loud crying in the distance. It was a little girl on a SUP wearing only a bathing suit, about 50 yards from shore. No PFD or leg leash to the SUP.
I was on the Columbia River shore last week and some guy pushing (or pulling) 60 was playing with his 6-8 year old son and their dog and inflatable “kayak” (a toy, not a boat) at a boat launch. I was the only other person around. Well first the dog, a larger shepherd, tries to crawl in the kayak and almost capsizes the kid. Then the kid drifts away from shore and the father starts screaming at him to paddle back. Well the kid doesn’t know how to paddle a kayak, and yells “I dont know how! I don’t know how!” and of course he doesn’t have a PFD even in the kayak. I don’t have a boat with me, and I’m not much of a swimmer so I kept my hand on my cell phone. The kid didn’t drift far but one gust would have put him out of reach. The father finally swam out and starts pulling the kayak in, but of course this got the dog all fired up and he swam out and tried to climb in, so the father is swimming and pulling and screaming at the dog all at once. This was all within 50 feet of shore but could have quickly become dangerous.
To his credit, once they got on shore the father’s screams turned to “next time you’re wearing a pfd! Next time you’re wearing a pfd!”