We take it for granted that every time we hire an escort boat they "know the ropes". Some do- some don't, some have years of experience and some are novice. Sometimes we assume they know how to drop off and pick up paddlers. That they would know something as basic as when to turn off the engine, and to count heads before it is turned on. I know of 2 occasions when paddlers have been hurt by negligent drivers and their helpers. I'm thinking that maybe basic training and or certification would be a good idea. Something preventive rather than tightening up of waivers to protect liability. Any ideas?
Submitted by watergirl808 on Tue, 10/19/2010 - 8:39pm
its your responsibility to find someone that you trust. be careful what you wish for. dont open a can of worms where the coast guard and all of these other entities want to get control and regulate. i know that safety is athe MAIN concern. as both paddler and escort driver i say that it should be the crerws job to find someone that they trust. for example you should never turn your engine off because that leaves you at the mercy of everything except for you (you have "0" control). you do want to be in neutral on pick ups, but perhaps not on drop offs. this allows you to get away from the paddlers. Smonahan posted a good thing of escorting. some of it comes on the part of paddlers not listening and doing their own thing. every crew has a choice and obligation to cover these things with themselves and their captain before the race. what happened to luke is an example of a lot of bad things happening at the same time. we are very lucky that hes still with us and hopefully gonna make a full recovery.
#1 Tue, 10/19/2010 - 9:09pm
Thanks for the direct hit to my safety button, Watergirl. I would be nice to talk to your team and lobby to OCHRA for more safety requirements. I am an escort boat coordinator and have been teaching my team of boat captains the do's and don'ts of canoe water safety. We'd like to get more involved but we keep getting shut down. Did you know that the official boats are on the race course for money? Over half of the official boats have never escorted a team much less know how to properly tow an OC-6 canoe to safety. If all of the escort boats are fully qualified and trained to handle a canoe team, why have all of the official boats? You as paddlers paid for those official boats in your team registration fee. Time for a change? Why does someone like Luke have to get hurt before change happens?
#2 Tue, 10/19/2010 - 9:30pm
We all want to be safe during water changes. Further, we all know it costs big bucks for an escort boat. Jus try and regulate or add red tape to these boat captains and see how many of them will want continue to escort us. I'll bet there won't be enough escort boats available and or the price will go sky high.
Why not try this!.................. Just use your GOD given brains and hire a "Qualified Captain" with a decent boat.
Marara
#3 Wed, 10/20/2010 - 5:14am
Mahalo Marara for you thoughtful comment-
But there are teams that come from the mainland that can't check out their drivers/boats the way we can here locally. I'm just thinking about safety certification and having some basic fist aid, fins tow rope ect. on board.
We had to have a boat towed in and as Kalei95 mentioned the official boat was a problem. They would not get into the water, don't know if they could swim or what?? had no idea how to tow a canoe! they were useless. Thank God our escort drivers was so akamai on all counts. We as paddlers are the only ones that can protect ourselves with this issue.
#4 Wed, 10/20/2010 - 7:20am
AGREED !
Marara.
#5 Wed, 10/20/2010 - 8:12am
The intention of learning from all of this is up to us." Safety doesn't happen by accident." Lets continue to brain storm and share how the "trusted" and most experienced escorts follow safety protocol. Some people escort different from others.What are the basics and what are some details that we all can learn and use? How can we protect this resposibility before we lose it;like Keola mentioned.
#6 Wed, 10/20/2010 - 2:20pm
Kind of piggy backing on what Keola was saying, find a captain that you trust. Teams need to look at their escort boat and captain as an extension of their crew. You don't want to pick up some random paddler to fill your crew in a race as important as the channel, why would you pick some random to escort you? As a paddler and an escort boat driver, I know how tough it is. An escort boat driver isn't kicking back in between changes getting their food and drink on... It's a stressful situation from the time the paddlers get on the boat, to the time they get off (in a lot of cases, not cleaning up their trash or knowing your name...) As the captain of the vessel, you are responsible for the paddlers and coaches on the team you escort for the entirety and your day isn't over when the race is over. It's a day that can be harder than paddling for sure. And then you talk about the money. The money my husband and I bring in escorting races never has us coming out making money in the long run--when you consider our time, maintenance, insurance, gas, the boat, parking and launching fees, mooring, etc, etc... We do it because of our love of the sport. It's a super huge bummer what happened to Luke and I'm stoked to hear he's on the road to recovery. Anything can and will go wrong in that channel as well as in everyday races and practices and it's up to us to try and be prepared for whatever is thrown at us. I think Luke's whole Kailua crew showed the importance of that.
As far as the official boats, I've been a boat coach during the Molokai Solo where our escort boat went down and had it not been for the official boats I would've been sitting 18 miles off of Oahu for a LONG time. Similarly, the official boats here in California prove vital. The official boats aren't important til you need them.
#7 Wed, 10/20/2010 - 4:54pm
This is a subject that I really wouldn't have cared all that much about two weeks ago. Now it is incredibly important to me.
Someone is going to die one of these days. There needs to be more regulation on the changes. I am usually not an advocate for regulation, but in this case it is critical.
I don't know what the solution is, but I found the discussion incredibly interesting. I'm not a boat driver, but it seems like there are a couple of directions that we could go in-- I'm mostly just re-phrasing what has been said:
1) Prop guards
pros- would insure that nobody gets hurt too badly
cons- would be an added expense for escort boat drivers which we, as paddlers, would directly take on
2) Extend the first change
pros- would help spread apart the pack and minimize the risk of injury
cons- would change the race strategy and would not eliminate the chance of injury
3) Strict change rules (my favorite)
Lay-out a framework for doing a change and penalize for not following it. Either a moving change (as has been discussed earlier) where the escort slowly goes perpendicular to the front of the canoe and the guys dive out one at a time. Or an idle change, where the escort goes far ahead and sits in idle, and the paddlers know to jump out far and spread apart. In this case, the boat could not be put in drive until each paddler is a set distance away from the boat.
pros- would minimize or nearly eliminate the chance of injury
cons- another regulation that may not be followed...
No matter what, I think that OHCRA needs to take the lead on this and set up a safety standard. It's not worth someone's life. I'm really glad that there is a dialogue on the subject.
#8 Thu, 10/21/2010 - 11:03pm
The major problem with the current rules for the first change is that the officials set 30 minutes as the time for the first change and then they announce the time on the radio so all the escort drivers get pumped up to hit the throttle as soon as the officials say "GO". This creates a mad dash at full throttle to get in front of the canoes to make the drops. The worst offenders are the escort boats for the canoes in the lead pack who want to be the first to make their drop before the real congestion starts.
All they have to do is change the rules so that you can make a change anytime you want, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour, whatever. This will eliminate the crazy motorboat race to make the first change at exactly 30 minutes. Crews will be making changes when they feel like it and I think it would calm everybody down and allow the field to spread out naturally and not have all the congestion right at Laau Point.
#9 Sat, 10/23/2010 - 6:32pm
Good idea, Sir. Maybe a staggered start so the elite crews/escort boats don't have to be all mixed in w/ everyone else.
#10 Sun, 10/24/2010 - 3:00am