I’m a newbie to sea kayaking and have spent some time reading the on line trip reports on the various club web sites. Amazing what quality info that can be found covering a wide range of topics.

Then I came across the trip report below.

Step I - Get some really crazy people. I find that XXXXXXXX are an ideal source. However, if hard to obtain, XXX XXXXX are a suitable substitute. Our expedition involved five XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Make sure that no more than one participant has ever had open water kayaking experience. In our case this was XXXXXX.

What do you think the outcome was for this group when they take on a two week trip to the Whitsundays??

Then you ask yourself why do they do it????

Hi Whitsunday,

I haven't seen that one. I guess it depends how lucky they were. Could be anywhere from a lovely paddle to a total wipeout. As I haven't heard of any mass drownings in the Whitsundays or a pod of half dead Aussie paddlers arriving in Auckland recently I'll go with a mass rescue scenario.

Are you going to enlighten us on the outcome ? Was it actually a serious report or tongue in cheek ? There tends to be a slightly anarchic streak and an irreverent sense of humour found in most outdoor pursuits and kayaking is no different. I know in our club mag's Flotsam column, there have been some wonderful irreverent peices that have a potential to be taken seriously by outside readers.

Our sport is largely unregulated, lets try to keep it that way by making sure that the majority of us act responsibly. Most of us seek out the skilled and experienced to learn from and actively manage risk to stay out of trouble or extract ourselves from trouble without outside assistance. Even if you regulate, license and restrict, it won't stop the ignorant, the uninformed and the just plain stupid from trying for their Darwin Award.

Was it actually a serious report or tongue in cheek ?

I think John has hit the nail on the head there, the club in question has a history of reports being written that way. That can be the problem with putting online what is essentially written for a group of (then) 100+ paddlers who are "in the know".

Ask Laurie about the concerned emails and phone calls he got after a very tongue-in-cheek article mentioned that he lost a leg while crossing Bass Strait.

Anyhow, the outcome of the article Whitsunday quotes is positive:

Overall it was an amazing experience (but costly). We got a hell of a lot out of it, mostly in terms of our personal development and the way that we bonded as a group in the times of crisis.

Dee

Hi Dee,

I had a feeling that might have been the case. In our online universe, it's very easy for things to be taken a little out of context.

I'd say that there's also been a culture shift in clubs over the years too. The club environment is much more safety oriented these days, so older articles may reflect slightly different times too.

http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/mag/36/rovers.html

I don't see this as a positive outcome.

Thanks for posting the link, (I'm a member of the NSWSKC, but that was long before my time). I do see your point Whitsunday. Why are inexperienced people out paddling well off shore ? There is potential for serious outcomes. People die regularly in this type of scenario, particularly in colder climates.

But lets keep it in perspective.

No one was killed. No one was hurt.

The boat was lost under tow by the yacht, as the group had already decided that the conditions were beyond their abilities and hitched a lift. That shows good judgement although not necessarily good knot tying despite the group being predominantly scouts. Does it actually qualify as a kayaking accident ?

While the language and writing style may leave the impression that the author is proud of the outcome, reading between the lines, it doesn't read to me like a brag sheet. It reads to me like a young person who made some poor judgement calls, had a bit of an adventure but is smart/humble enough to post the trip report for others to learn from. They could have gone home with their tails between their legs and kept their mouths shut, so I'm prepared to allow a bit of leeway in the writing style, especially as it was in line with reports written by other more experienced paddlers at the time and nobody got hurt. You've got to expect a bit of ego preserving rhetoric when someone is " 'fessing up" to an embarassing experience in a public forum.

Secondly there isn't a great deal of detail about the individuals and their actual experience. While there may well have been limited experience on the sea, it's likely (being mainly Scouts) that there could have been some white water background and that the participants could roll and brace well to start off with.

Was it an ideal situation? No. No argument there from me. Could the situation have been managed better with some additional planning and experience ? Yes, for sure. The important thing is to be thinking about safety and trying to learn from the experience of others, which is exactly what you're doing and good on you.

So here's an exercise, "What would you have done differently ?"

John
Good question, need to get some perspective on this one
Lets see, I was a Rover and a member of SUSS(Sydney University Speleological Society) between 1980 and 1984, so what would I have done differently as a member of this trip, back then???? Not much, probably borrowed or rented a kayak, and driven it up to the Whitsundays on the top of my 1971 VW Superbug.
I would have had a great trip, certainly one to remember.

A bit different now.......
Whitsunday