The Meaning of Death

[JohnRich 4]

One of my other recreation activities is canoeing, and with that sport I've run across this article, below. It's an interesting perspective, and perhaps it has parallels with the sport of skydiving.

Kayaker Deaths and their Meaning

...The lessons of this kayaking death and others go beyond technique and judgment, however. Let's face it, death and the risk of death permeats kayaking, or at least the "serious" form of kayaking to which many paddlers aspire. Many of us are probably inspired to kayak because it is precisely the risk of death that awakens in us that special kind of alertness that makes us feel truly and fully alive.

If we aren't considering the prospect of our death and the death of our paddling partners each time we kayak then we are fooling ourselves. So much can go wrong...

The death of a kayaker is an opportunity for us to acknowledge and come closer to Mother Nature, the Forces of Nature, God's Creation (pick your metaphor) and take special note of its relentless ability to thrust death upon the foolish, the smart, the innocent and the deserving alike.

Death gives the sport, the way, of kayaking its meaning. If no one died kayaking then we would be practicing something like tiddlywinks or knitting. Interesting and enjoyable, even useful, no doubt, but not something that engages body and mind so completely as kayaking. The risk of death gives kayaking a sort of mythic dimension that these more routine activities lack. Each time we put it on the line with a lengthy crossing or by challenging big surf or taking a long trip along unfamiliar shores we are reenacting in our own way the great nautical adventures chronicled by Homer, in the Bible, and by fleets of novelists and adventurers since then...

Full story: http://caskaorg.typepad.com/caska/2011/06/by-tom-bamonte-kayaker-deaths-and-their-meaning-for-us-the-recent-news-of-the-tragic-death-of-a-young-kayaker-in-lak.html

[pyrotech 0]

I never understood the people who want to participate in extreme sports, but want to do so without the risk of injury or death. Sure, I try to be as safe as I can when I'm doing the sports I love, but if there's no risk involved in it, it stops being fun for me.

[JerryBaumchen 1,047]

Hi John,

My son is a kayaker and he tells me that you do not get injured, you get dead.

JerryBaumchen

[bofh 0]

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I never understood the people who want to participate in extreme sports, but want to do so without the risk of injury or death. Sure, I try to be as safe as I can when I'm doing the sports I love, but if there's no risk involved in it, it stops being fun for me.

There are more ways to enjoy things than just adrenalin rushes.

For me kayaking is about exploring nature and getting some upper body exercise at the same time, not adrenalin rushes. A calm sea, a setting sun and paddling up near some sea bird can be magical. The risks of injury and death only prevents me from kayaking in some weathers, it doesn't make it more fun.

Skydiving is about the people, the joy of improving my abilities and the sense of freedom. Sure, some adrenalin rush can be fun, but even without that I do enjoy skydiving.

[JohnRich 4]

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My son is a kayaker and he tells me that you do not get injured, you get dead.

I don't agree with your son on that. There are LOTS of ways to get injured in a kayak, mostly in whitewater. With your legs inside the boat, if the boat gets wrapped around a rock or bent, it snaps your legs while they're inside. And then someone has to cut the boat in half to get you out. One of the reasons I like a canoe is that if something goes wrong, you just fall out, free of the boat - you don't get trapped inside.

Back to the article... I thought for sure that this one line would generate some controversy:

"we should thank the kayakers who died for reminding us of Death, our ever-present paddling companion"

"Thank you" for dying? No, I don't think so. I would rather you not have died... I don't need people to die skydiving so that others will think I'm "cool" for being a daredevil.

[beowulf 1]

While I don't agree with it, I do understand what the author was trying to say.

Watching someone go in, I think, changes your perspective on death.

How often do people die kayaking? Is it comparable to skyiving?

[trig78 0]

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While I don't agree with it, I do understand what the author was trying to say.

+1

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How often do people die kayaking? Is it comparable to skyiving.How often do people die kayaking? Is it comparable to skyiving?

As for whitewater kayaking i believe it is more comparable to BASE jumping. There's few fatality lists on the net.

If I'm not mistaking, years back it was regarded as the deadliest sport.....Now we have BASE.

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/aw-preliminary-whitewater-fatality-list-20296.html

[devildog 0]

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While I don't agree with it, I do understand what the author was trying to say.

+1

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How often do people die kayaking? Is it comparable to skyiving.How often do people die kayaking? Is it comparable to skyiving?

As for whitewater kayaking i believe it is more comparable to BASE jumping. There's few fatality lists on the net.

If I'm not mistaking, years back it was regarded as the deadliest sport.....Now we have BASE.

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/aw-preliminary-whitewater-fatality-list-20296.html

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/1614/display/full/

Chart 1: Kayaking, Canoeing, Rafting Fatality Rates (per 100,000 Participants)
K1 whitewater participants (1998) 2.9
Human-powered boaters (flatwater, ocean, whitewater) (1995) 0.4
Chart 2: Kayaking, Canoeing, Rafting Fatality Rates (per 100,000 User Days)
All whitewater craft;1998 (based on managed-river study; 1998) 1.1
All whitewater craft from 1994-1998 (based on managed-river study) 0.86

You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

[trig78 0]

While it's nice that someone is making studies to show that an extreme sport is safer than public thinks, those numbers would probably be much higher if they wouldn't calculate all the tourists that got onto a raft once but just the people that are actually doing it regularly.

[pyrotech 0]

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I never understood the people who want to participate in extreme sports, but want to do so without the risk of injury or death. Sure, I try to be as safe as I can when I'm doing the sports I love, but if there's no risk involved in it, it stops being fun for me.

There are more ways to enjoy things than just adrenalin rushes.

For me kayaking is about exploring nature and getting some upper body exercise at the same time, not adrenalin rushes. A calm sea, a setting sun and paddling up near some sea bird can be magical. The risks of injury and death only prevents me from kayaking in some weathers, it doesn't make it more fun.

Kayaking on a calm sea is not an extreme sport.

[JohnRich 4]

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Kayaking on a calm sea is not an extreme sport.

Not always. Sea kayakers paddle quite far from shore, and if there's trouble, it's serious because there is no one around to help, and they can't just swim back to shore easily. Weather can change quickly, kicking up big waves which overturn tippy kayaks. Getting back into a kayak once it's tipped over is extremely difficult, and requires specialized training. Fog can roll in to create navigation issues. And if the water temperature is cold, death from hypothermia is a real possibility. So, on the face of it, it doesn't seem too extreme, but there are some very real dangers.

[heavydude 0]

I got chased once by some big-ass sea lions near Zuniga Jetty once. they were pissed I got too close...
Was sort of sceered that time. And then there were those dudes near Ventura that all they found were the Kayaks with big great white teethmarks several years back. Friend of mine was also blown out to sea when he "mis-judged" Offshore winds once. Got rescued by a passing boat luckily !
Sea Kayaking is Usually pretty calm sport but like you said "stuff can go wrong"