SW
C IS FOR COMMITMENT. PHOTO: FRANÇOIS BRASSARD
rapid they would otherwise walk. The decision shifts to satisfying peers rather than assessing one’s abil- ity against the rapid.
E » EXPERT HALO: HAVING SKILLED PEOPLE AROUND CAN MISTAKENLY LOWER EVERYBODY’S PERCEIVED RISK
C » COMMITMENT: Driving five hours to run a river makes it incredibly difficult to not run it when you get there—flood conditions, late put in or forgotten safety gear be damned. I once scolded a dude for running a river without a helmet. He left it at home and wasn’t going to miss out on a day on the river. He told me I was a dick.
E » EXPERT HALO: Having skilled people around can mistakenly lower everybody’s perceived risk. We certainly see this in the guiding world every day, where people turn off their brains when the guide is around. It also plays out in a group of friends, with individuals subconsciously believing their trained buddy has them covered, without ever asking or discussing how a rescue might work.
T » TRAFFIC: Busy rivers put subtle pressure on people to hurry up.
The Gauley in high season is a good example of freeway men- tality on a river—everybody rac- ing to beat the crowd, road rage included.
S » SOCIAL PROOF: Ever been
to MooseFest? You will never see so many under-skilled paddlers hucking way over their head, simply because they watched 50 paddlers before them blow their line and survive. Must be safe, right? Even just watching a buddy make a run provides proof that may sway an undecided paddler.
All of these human factors confound our better judgment. People pre- dictably use subjective qualities to make decisions regarding objective hazards. It is like using apples to assess oranges. There is, of course, a rule to deal with these human factors (surprised?). It is simple and some- what universal in decision-making: after you make your decision to run a rapid, ask yourself, “If I were alone and this was my first time running this river, would I make the same decision?” It will strip away the subjective human factors that get in the way of good decision-making. Neurosci- ence tells us we need all the help we can get. —Jeff Jackson
www.rapidmag.com 33
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