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Surfing in an inflatable open boat
(David Jones) writes:
On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, Rich Orford wrote:
"David Jones" wrote in message
Any advice gratefully received
At the risk of sounding reckless and unhelpful. What is the world coming
to? - surely we all remember ourselves as small children on holiday at the
beach in our inflatable dinghies playing in the waves with offshore winds
and everyone thought it was great fun.
Possibly, this is why I was a bit worryed. When I was a kid, one of
my mums pet paranioas (she had plenty ;-) was inflatables in the
sea.
Your mum wasn't far wrong, in that context. One of the big dangers
of those inflatable toys is that they allow someone who isn't a
strong swimmer to get well out beyond his/her depth and the point at
which he/she could swim to shore...carried out by a rip current, for
example. This scenario has played out enough times at beaches that
many public beaches ban them. But a proper inflatable boat -- not a
pool toy masquerading as a boat -- is a different matter.
We were never aloud to get any distance from the beach. So when this
bloke wanted me to take him to the seaside, I thought I would ask the
colected wisdom of this newsgroup.
Make sure he's got some footwear, a helmet, check he can swim and check for
dangerous currents.
Yeah, he has just been out and bought a PDF and a helmet. Should be a
laugh one way or another.
Um. Well. You hope so.
I'd say a lot depends on how sensible this guy is, and how well you
plan to sheepdog him. Common sense keeps people from getting in
over their heads in unfamiliar situations, as do clueful people with
an eye on the situation.
--
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Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.
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