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Hands-On Learning
Improve your rescue skills with hands-on, intensive and fun courses
INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATIONS:
Whitewater Rescue Beginner to Technician 2 to 4 days
Wilderness First Aid and First Responder 2 to 8 days
BOOK A COURSE Course Calendar:
www.borealriverrescue.com 1-866-242-9383
Canada
Costa Rica Patagonia
FlUSHED
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT. PHOTO: STEVE ROGERS
Photo: Gail Shields
WHITE
Length 11' 3" Width 25" Beam 27" Weight 44 lbs. Capacity 500 lbs.
A SOBERING TRUTH BY ANONYMOUS
Eighteen months ago, I shattered six vertebrae after one bad stroke off the lip of a 40-foot drop in the Royal Gorge. One month later, I at- tended the funeral of my paddling hero and role model, Boyce Greer. In September, my close friend and accomplished paddler, Alan Panebaker, drowned on a rapid on the Pemigewasset that we often bombed without a second thought. I’m left wondering why I kayak. Do the rewards justify the risks? Have I simply replaced my addiction to alcohol with an addic- tion to whitewater?
Before kayaking, I spent 10 years of my life pursuing alcohol. I was
secretly proud when my girlfriend told me that I had been hospitalized with a blood-alcohol level significantly above the normal fatal level yet still managed to get to work the next day.
Like most, when I was drinking, I only thought about myself. I claimed I was only hurting myself, ignoring the concerns of my family and friends. I was living in the moment and when the drinking got worse, I said I wanted to escape reality. When my friends died in drunk driving and from suicidal drinking, I came up with excuses about how they were different from me. Then I drank to celebrate their lives.
I stopped drinking a little over six years ago. Not knowing how to enjoy life, I started kayaking, another escape from the doldrums of the daily grind.
82 RAPID SPRING 2013
Flat Bottom Sharp Chine High Volume Ends Symmetrical Pronounced Rocker
Again, I find myself risking my life. I’m telling myself that it is my life to do with what I want, once again setting aside the concerns of my family and loved ones. I think about kayaking when I get up in the morning and while I am at work. Almost every fight I get into with my girlfriend is cen- tered on boating. My friends are dead and she and I have no reason to be- lieve that the exact same thing will not happen to me the next time it rains. But I still go—sometimes to celebrate the life of another lost paddler. In my drinking days, I was a recluse, leaving home only to buy more al- cohol. Since, I have developed an undeniable love of life that is infectious to those around me. I have spent summers kayaking down the spring- fed rivers of the Sierra Nevada. I have paddled down giant, blind class V rapids on Tatlow Creek in British Columbia, using a piece of scrap paper in a Ziploc for directions. I have surfed from state to state, introducing myself as a friend of so-and-so, meeting up with strangers to go paddle. I have driven 10 hours to Quebec to face the isolation of the Taureau and then drove back home through the night. Boyce once said, “I had more fun on Saturday than most people have all year.” I strive to live these words every time I paddle. The addiction of kayaking for me is about living life, and though I do not feel any rapid is worth dying over, I am not willing to give up the adventure, friendships or exhilaration that has been my life since I got sober and started paddling. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, visit the Nation- al Institute of Health website for alcohol treatment at
www.niaaa.nih.gov.
novacraft.com
Risk Reflection
In “A Sobering Truth” (Flushed, Spring 2013, www.rapidmag. com/0146), one kayaker reflected on the risks he’s taken and friends he’s loved and lost to the dangers of the river. The provocative article inspired discussion on
Rapidmedia.com. “Risk management is an essential skill in many of life’s activi- ties, none more than whitewater kayaking,” commented Rob- ert Mock. “Can’t eliminate all risk, but you can improve your chances. It’s ok to say ‘no.’”
Rescue Hero
A scary whitewater rescue video got conversation going on
Rapidmedia.com and on Rapid’s Facebook page. When a U.K. kayaker got pushed off line and trapped vertically with wa- ter rushing over his head, his friends’ quick reactions got him out of the sticky situation. “That’s when you know who your mates are! Well done, lad!” wrote Aled Davies of the speedy response, captured on the main rescuer’s GoPro. Sam Foust joined the discussion to point out a scary reality,
“that could have ended way worse.” Readers agreed on the im- portance of proper training and equipment, commenting that it looked like the rescuers had lots of experience. “Epic rescue! Those guys were fast!” said Ayşe Eskigülek. “You don’t carry rope for yourself, it’s for your friends,” wrote hazardharyy on
Rapidmedia.com, “mega kudos.” “Really nice demonstration of why having training, practicing,
and having a plan is so important on the river. Good leadership and good care of the victim after the fact too. They were all lucky that he was so easily accessible and not injured. Good job,” wrote Holly McIntyre. Watch the video and join the dis- cussion at
www.rapidmedia.com/0147.
Events
Shine your paddle and get your boats out of storage because it’s time to get back on the water. Join Rapid Media at the premiere of the 2014 Reel Paddling Film Festival World Tour, March 4 in Toronto, or check out one of 99 other stops on this year’s tour (
www.reelpaddlingfilmfestival.com). Visit the Rapid team at the Toronto Outdoor Adventure
Show, February 21 to 23 (
www.outdooradventureshow.com); at Canoecopia in Madison, WI, from March 7 to 9, (www.
canoecopia.com) and at Jersey Paddler’s Paddlesport in Som- erset, NJ, March 28 to 30 (
www.jerseypaddler.com). The East Coast Paddlesports and Outdoor Festival takes place April 11 to 13 in Charleston, SC (
www.charlestoncountyparks.com/ outdoorfest).
FIND US:
editor@rapidmag.com |
www.rapidmag.com www.facebook.com/rapidmagazine
www.twitter.com/rapidmag |
www.rapidmagtv.com 14 | RAPID
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