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Jim,
In what way would you change/upgrade your preparedness?
In what way would you change/upgrade your preparedness?
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Happy Winter Solstice! 🌇🌃
Video, of a guy tipping a canoe over in the middle of a Minnesota Lake
- Thread starter Jim Dodd
- Start date
Agreed Jim, this guys lack of self and situational awareness should encourage us to realize we all have blind spots. This goes for everything in life, not just canoeing.
Mark
Mark
You can see the battery sitting on the floor, right behind the front seat. So at least it wasn’t behind him.
For my personal preparedness, I'd stay closer to shore, as opposed to venturing out on big open water.
Spend a little time this Summer, on a pond or small lake, and try some reentry technics I've seen. I have reentered in shallow water, but haven't had a deep water trial.
Practice getting into a kneeling position.
A knee pad for sure, I never have been comfortable on my knees.
I always wear a decent life jacket.
My Flip phone goes into a zip lock bag, when I'm planning on any questionable water paddling. Truthfully any time, a dumping can occur.
My Older canoe hauling trucks, have an extra set of keys hidden. That trick has saved me a few times !
I'm sure there are more !
Ideas from others are sure Welcome !
I capsized a canoe in cold water once, while sailing. I was wearing a short wetsuit, and swam the boat to shore to drain it. I added float bags after that. I swamped a folding kayak in an inlet once through a combination of problems. While the boat was rated by the manufacturer for my weight, it really wasn't large enough for me in a chop. Unknown to me, the fabric deck had lost its water resistance, so between my weight and the chop, we were taking water through the deck. By the time I realized it, the next wave filled the cockpit. I had the internal sponsons inflated, but they had only enough buoyancy to keep the boat from sinking. I declined help from a large power boat, thinking he was more likely to crush me than save me. Again I swam the boat ashore, and enlisted the help of some teens who were diving off the fishing pier (!) to help turn it over. After that I bought a larger Folbot, waterproofed the deck, and use more float bags. We all should learn from our mistakes and near misses, and those of others.
This guy broke most of the rules.
- Most importantly, wear a PFD. His breathing tells me the blue cushion was all he had.
- He paddled alone.
- He didn't respect the water. I encourage paddlers to stay out of situations they can't swim out of. In open water or serious whitewater go with tested skills and a solid crew.
- He didn't respect the weather. Hear that wind?
- He broke the Boy Scout motto, "Be prepared". He failed to learn anything about what he was doing, so he had to call for grown-ups to come rescue him. He got lucky, in many places he would have drowned.
Seriously, to anybody who doesn't already know, wear the PFD. I know you think you don't need it. I don't like it either. But I've learned the hard way. Thinking you are drowning sucks. Just wear the PFD.
Finally, have some dignity and try and help yourself. This guy is so helpless it is disgusting.
- Most importantly, wear a PFD. His breathing tells me the blue cushion was all he had.
- He paddled alone.
- He didn't respect the water. I encourage paddlers to stay out of situations they can't swim out of. In open water or serious whitewater go with tested skills and a solid crew.
- He didn't respect the weather. Hear that wind?
- He broke the Boy Scout motto, "Be prepared". He failed to learn anything about what he was doing, so he had to call for grown-ups to come rescue him. He got lucky, in many places he would have drowned.
Seriously, to anybody who doesn't already know, wear the PFD. I know you think you don't need it. I don't like it either. But I've learned the hard way. Thinking you are drowning sucks. Just wear the PFD.
Finally, have some dignity and try and help yourself. This guy is so helpless it is disgusting.
Clearly his skills, abilities, and preparations and gear were sub-par for the conditions he found himself in. Perhaps not so for many or most in this forum. I have for 30 years taught canoeing to young adult BSA trek leader student high adventure guides wishing certification to work for Adirondack summer camps. Pack and trim a canoe properly. Canoe self rescue is always a big demonstration item, first by instructor staff, followed by every student getting wet for their own demo experience. My question to them is always "how and why did a mid-lake capsize happen in the first place?". And "What were you thinking taking out 3-5 canoes with novice paddler inexperienced young scouts out in water likely too rough for them to handle? - what could, should you have done differently?"
The question always comes up whether to tie or not tie gear in the canoe. For flatwater normally calm smallish lakes and rivers, I am not a fan of tying. For whitewater wilderness travel, yes of course. Your gear is your life and hopefully there is a good chance of retrieval downriver. Of course you do have minimal essentials of compass, whistle, knife, and fire starter in your PFD pocket.
When scouts say "but my pack is so heavy it would sink" if not tied to the canoe. Not true. With that question, I have my own pack there and throw it in the water to show that the bottom only sinks about 2 inches below the surface. Any daytime or critical items I need access to in the canoe are kept in a separate dry bag which also floats. If blown away from the capsized canoe by the wind, it can always be retrieved later from a rescued upright dry canoe. The way some kids would tie their gear in with impossible to untie wet knots would make removal from a swamped canoe nearly imposssible, especially with cold fingers. if it makes you feel better, clip the hip belt around a thwart. Wearing of a PFD is mandatory always (even by adult scoutmasters on the trek who claim they are good swimmers).
So a guide's first thought should be to not go out at all until conditions improve. Or stay very near shore in calmer shallower water when in marginal conditions for abilities, Stay with a capsized canoe and know how to do a near shore self or assisted rescue, know how to do a canoe over canoe deep water rescue. Spend some time showing first time and inexperienced paddlers the basics of paddle and canoe control. Show me that you are trusted to know these things. Be prepared, plan ahead, and don't get into impossible situations in the first place. Then enjoy being a trek guide.
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That was pretty entertaining. He seemed pretty stressed out and nervous before the capsize. I'm guessing the reason for paddling while letting the trolling motor run unattended was that he wanted to get to a more sheltered area as fast as possible.
My favorite part was the dead bluegill that floated by just after capsize. I don't know if that was his trophy for the day or if it just happened to be there.
Alan
My favorite part was the dead bluegill that floated by just after capsize. I don't know if that was his trophy for the day or if it just happened to be there.
Alan
I too noticed the Bluegill.
At first I thought this was a staged production, but quickly learned otherwise.
Sad, but lucky he survived.
I always take newbies out and have them capsize boats near shore. It helps them learn the limits of canoes. I have them stand in the river while we do the safety lecture so get the water temp. Wear a lifejacket of get in the truck. Dress for immersion. We practice using rescue lines in easier rapids that people can swim. Everyone carries a rescue throw line. We go in a group and stay together. Canoeing is a group sport. Trim your boat and secure the load. You never "have to get home today."
at first my prepareness begins with packing the canoe ...
. 
. 
in this way that it is trimmt well and for me to paddle comfortly.
Last season i did three multi-day canoe trips ... and of course i gelled. Too much is too much. With each tour, my equipment was reduced so that I was able to ride the last multi-day tour completely relaxed.
As these tours mainly took place on lakes that were connected to small canals, I was always forced to pack my equipment well in the boat and secure it. The only thing I always needed was my yellow waterresitend daily bag in which I had food and drink for the day. The binoculars and camera were also packed in it.
Everything that is stowed and lashed down in the boat next to the buoyancy aids
is a buoyancy aid in the event of capsizing!
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I don't understand why no attempt to swim to shore was made. He claims to be an OK swimmer, can't tell exactly how long before sunset that the dump took place but once he had alerted 911 (as the sun was getting low on the horizon) why not head for shore? Sure it's a relatively big lake but it's not the ocean with no land in sight at all. When the rescue boat is first spotted, it seems to be relatively close to shore and arrives on the scene very quickly so the distance might a mile or so, once it gets dark there would be no chance of rescue for 6 - 10 hours (depending on time of year), no way would I try to tread water for that length of time when the shoreline is clearly visible.
@Marten, I also wondered about a 10 foot tandem boat, I've never seen a tandem that small other than a few pure ww boats and they would have pedestals not seats.
@Marten, I also wondered about a 10 foot tandem boat, I've never seen a tandem that small other than a few pure ww boats and they would have pedestals not seats.
This is why I don't pollute my YT feed with nutjob algorithms. lol. After a brief peek at this flat-world saint my YT has become filled with Sportspal motorboating heck-drivers seeking Godly redemption. Ha. In case you didn't notice the world is full of shameless egotrippers.
They either want your money or your votes, but always your attention. Meh.
I will spend the next week correcting my skewed algorithm and refocusing interest, away from bs content and towards a welcoming horizon.
But this thread is fun. Just like a dumbass video. Fun to watch on someone else's TV.
They either want your money or your votes, but always your attention. Meh.
I will spend the next week correcting my skewed algorithm and refocusing interest, away from bs content and towards a welcoming horizon.
But this thread is fun. Just like a dumbass video. Fun to watch on someone else's TV.
That's what I'd have done once my boat promptly sank. In one of the videos he said something to the effect that he wanted to stay near his gear so that he might be able to save it. He seemed particularly obsessive about his paper day planner book, which only Poseidon knows why anyone would take along on a fishing trip in a canoe.
I doubt it. Those Go-Pro type cameras are so wide angle that they make everything look far away.
Have you watched the recovery video from when they retrieved the canoe? Maybe they'll have a good shot of it.
Alan
At 32.58 of the salvage video the boat is lashed to his truck but I have no idea who made it.
Kinda looks like this one, it's a Sun Dolphin, a cheap Chinese canoe sold by big box stores, Canadian Tire in Canada. Scrolled through the recovery video, that fella is too much, at the end he is asking for donations. It seems like this entire fiasco is the most exciting thing to have ever happened to him.
I wonder how appropriate normal canoes are for motorized use. Not larger square stern canoes that have concessions to motorization, but regular canoes. This one looks like a typical big box bath tube with a mini motor mount.
Even if it had extra flotation in the rear it still seems marginal.
I've never tried to motorize a canoe. Did this guy do something wrong or is it a bad idea from the start?
Even if it had extra flotation in the rear it still seems marginal.
I've never tried to motorize a canoe. Did this guy do something wrong or is it a bad idea from the start?
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