The dangers of kayaking and camping are real.
skygreen | February 11, 2010The best way to improve your safety on a kayak outing is to stress personal responsibility, preparation, and sound decision-making. The more prepared you are, the more likely you will have a safe and enjoyable trip.
I venture forth on any kayak outing with the belief my life and survival is entirely in my own hands. My motto is to be as prepared as possible at all times, because my chance of survival increases immensely when I am prepared, and to remember my safety is entirely up to me and the decisions, (or lack of them) I make.
If I encounter any kind of emergency while kayaking and camping, I do not expect anyone to rescue me because I am ill prepared and failed to properly plan. I believe people must learn to depend upon themselves to keep themselves safe and to try to steer clear of dangerous situations. I believe it is your responsibility to make inquires; to be prepared; to use good judgment; and to determine whether or not you feel confident going on a kayaking and camping outing.
Unfortunately, no matter how unprepared some people are, they EXPECT to be rescued. If they knew no one would come to their aide, how many people would continue to do what they do? I can think of several instances in which people have made very poor decisions that caused their situations.
However, rescuing people isn’t about pointing out someone’s shortcomings or deciding whether or not they deserve to be rescued. Likewise, it is never prudent to continue to provide assistance to those who continually demonstrate ambivalence and disregard for their personal safety, at the cost to others on their behalf.
Unfortunately, there will always be those who never assume responsibility for their actions and who will continue to repeat the same behavior, at the expense of others, who continually bail them out of the messes, they get themselves into.
This is not to say I don’t take any risks, such as going kayaking and camping alone out in timbuk2, but I do my best to mitigate those risks as much as possible. Life is all about risk, but it is also about personal accountability. That is why I try to be meticulous in my planning to reduce the number of things that could go wrong. Still, I will be the first to admit, anyone can encounter unforeseen situations.
Individuals who risk their life because they don’t want to do the necessary preparation in what could literally be a life or death decision, comes down to life is all about choices and how much value they place on their life. Some, but not all people, will continue to go on kayak outings without adequate preparations, no matter how often or many, other people try to tell them otherwise, what they are doing is not a safe idea.
What it all boils down to is, only you can decide if you are willing to pay the price for the decisions you make.
When planning a kayak outing one of the biggest factors to take into consideration is your safety and the safety of others who are dependent on you.
It seems like common sense to me, your odds of survival increase if you wear a lifejacket and your odds of encountering a problem would increase two-fold if you paddle with someone who is not wearing a life jacket. . However, there are people who are well aware of the significance of wearing a lifejacket, and elect not to. Why is that I wonder?
At some point you need to think before you go off on a kayaking outing ill prepared, whether that is a weekend jaunt, a weeks stay or on an extended outing. This includes, where you will be camping, what the weather conditions are, if there are wild animals, if it is a dangerous area, is your vehicle in good running condition, etc.
When I read, or hear about someone on the news, where they did not prepare adequately for a given endeavor, I can’t help but wonder if these individuals figured that if things go bad, someone will be there to come bail them out of their troubles.
While I long to be compassionate of others, I have no problem pointing out that not being properly equipped, or the lack of preparation is not only ill advised, doing so is no different than driving down the road at night without your headlights on. Such foolish acts are often undertaken without due consideration of the consequences, death and expense for others who come to their aide.