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--- stories:swimming_cold_water_2007 [2020/04/04 13:34]
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+++ stories:swimming_cold_water_2007 [2025/03/23 22:11] (current)
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-==== Swimming in Cold Water ====
+<< stories:forgive_us_our_trespasses|Previous Story^stories:bellingham_stories|Story List ^ stories:hand_dryer_2007|Next Story>>
+===== Swimming in Cold Water =====
+**drownings\\
+Erik Borgnes** \\
+/09/07 #2741
+U.S. Coast Guard statistics (For more details, visit:\\
+[[http://www.uscgboating.org/statistics/Boating_Statistics_2005.pdf|http://www.uscgboating.org/statistics/Boating_Statistics_2005.pdf]])
+* 70% of boating fatalities were drowning victims
+* 87% of drowning victims were not wearing PFD's
+* 60 % of fatalities were result of capsizing or falls overboard
+* Florida led in fatalities (80 deaths), followed by California (58)
+That 2005 report specifies that the number of drownings in canoes and kayaks was 78 and that's for the entire USA, inland, and along the coasts. If you take the recreational paddlers, drunks and dam accidents out of the 78, you're probably left with a fairly small number of "experienced" canoeists and kayakers.
+We've got a small tightly knit racing community in the USA, SA, Hawaii, so drownings of ICF K1, ski or OC paddlers are widely publicized. I think that last year I heard of a K1 paddler drowning in Germany, and another one near Washington DC. Both were in winter and were a bit odd as they were in small wide rivers without that much current. Both were not witnessed, and there is always the possibility that one or both could have died before they hit the water - i.e. heart attack, etc.
+The only other drownings that I hear about are sea kayakers that capsize, can't get back in, and succumb to hypothermia. Whether or not a sea kayaker wears a pfd to help with floatation probably doesn't matter much because they are always with their floating boats. And they can nearly always put on their pfd when they're in the water. I haven't heard of a sea kayaker drowning because of the inability to stay afloat. They die from exposure (hypothermia) and they are either dressed for immersion or they are not. Might there be fewer deaths if they were renamed "near shore kayaks" rather than "sea kayaks"?
+You just don't hear of many windsurfers that drown, do you? Might be that they can always delay hypothermia by getting out of the water and laying on their board to paddle in. Plus, they are usually dressed for immersion because they get immersed pretty often.
+Canoeists have a boat that sinks, so they should be wearing their pfd's, and / or stay within swimming distance to shore, right?
+For a ski or OC paddler, the thing that saves your life is 1. not letting your boat blow away from you, and 2. being able to get back on it, or at least mostly on it to avoid / delay hypothermia. But, if our boat gets away from us and the pfd is taken away with the boat, then we may be in trouble as we don't dress for lengthy immersion - usually.
+So, the paradox is that the boats deemed most seaworthy (sea kayaks) and most stable (canoes) are the ones where the majority of fatalities will happen - and that is probably more based on boat design than in paddler / windsurfer skill.
+During deer hunting season for guns in Wisconsin alone, a hunter is killed on average about every 3 days - which works out to a rate of about 120 dead per 365 days of rifle hunting - and those numbers are averaged over the last few decades.
+For perspective, there were 43,000 auto accident fatalities in the USA in 2004. So, from my perspective, the US Coast Guard is doing an awesome job on the water, maybe they should focus some of their resources on the roadways?
+Erik
+**Reivers Dustin** \\
+/09/07 #2743
+This is a great post. When I try talk about this stuff, it turns into a rant. Safety is getting to be like religion or politics in being so polarized. If something goes wrong, it seems blame or rules get all the focus. Well, I guess that's where the money is.
+Anyway, I sure wear my lifejacket, leash, radio more than I ever used to. The little stuff that saves the day can be so unpredictable. Like having a lanyard from my GPS to tie my broken rudder cable together. (7 miles from the put-in!)
+rd
 **Re: drownings\\
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 Larry Bussinger
-\\
 **Re: drownings\\
 Alan <Alan.Carlsson@…>** \\
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 I was paddling a K1 in my training wheels needed days and fell in less than 10 m (30 feet) from shore and rapidly shallowed to 1 m deep (3 feet) about 5 m from shore. No wind, funky currents and sunny day.
-The water was very cold (a month of so from ice forming- so within 3-4 C of freezing). While I was thrashing to shore with my K1 I lost the boat when my hands lost gripping strength, and when I stood up I found my legs didn't work to well and kept falling back in.
+The water was very cold (a month of so from ice forming- so within 3-4 C of freezing). While I was thrashing to shore with my K1 I lost the boat when my hands lost gripping strength, and when I stood up I found my legs didn't work too well and kept falling back in.
 When its cold, PFDs and leashes and swimming ability are worth nothing. Being aware and smart is what will keep you alive.

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