Rick and others make money and massage a macho ego by blaming victims
below:
"raves that we are responsible for the deaths of morons who go
paddling
in conditions that are well beyond their skills."

"Conditions" are not predictable. Sickness, fast-moving weather,
quickly changing winds have killed the most expert. Canoes and kayaks
are very vulnerable.

Since capsize is inevitable sometime in such craft, rescue should be
as foolproof as possible.

This is the history of lifesaving, medicine, civilized society. Why
cruelly blame people for their own deaths. Or work to keep canoes and
kayaks as deadly as possible.

Our society is based on police who try to keep roads safe. NASA's
shuttle is grounded by safety concerns. Cars have better brakes, and
air-bags. Why would you kill your neighbour instead of saving your
neighbour?

Lifesaving Scandal

There is simply no equivalent in the 20th century or the 19th century
regarding this extremely high death rate. Death Rates one could only
expect through deliberate anti-safety and anti-social policies.
Compa 11,000 British sailors dead in overloaded and heavily insured
ships 1879-1899, in the largest merchant marine in the world. This is
1 sailor in 60 dying violently in water; in mining, same period, 1
dead miner in 315, both over a lifetime of exposure. Good thing that
canoes and kayaks are a small and declining US industry! And that
people don't canoe and kayak very often, since drowning deaths,
despite PFDs are far, far greater than for any other boat type!

I shall keep this short. The reality is that these carefully
constructed pieces of documentation will save lives, and also shed
light on the power of tiny and poor lobby groups (that are totally
unrepresentative of users, but make money by killing them, as in the
above Paddler quote); through tricking organizations as large as the
USCG, who legislate lifesaving measures in the US.

I am grateful for your help in saving lives. It is absurdly simple!
Give people a means to get out of the water and they don't die!
City waterfronts have buoyant, lifesaving objects available to save
anyone. (Most people don't stroll wearing a PFD!) For a thousand years
buoyant objects have saved human lives. But canoes and kayaks are
denied a simple, inexpensive, and obvious means to get out of the
water in 2004! Why have ambulances or even Coast Guards, if the
simplest form of watercraft is allowed to murder children and their
parents at a rate never before seen in history! This death rate is so
simply remedied that eventually, criminal charges are certain.

In Canada, the death rate is much higher than the US, thanks to the
Canadian Coast Guard covering up a study by a Canadian Search and
Rescue Officer who found exactly the same sponson safety reported by
the US Military Special Forces Kayaking Study (10th Airborne) in 1994.
Result: About 500 Canadian canoe and kayak deaths.

This study and others will stand with "Hitler's Willing Executioners"
and Milgram's studies at Yale, regarding the darker aspects of
humanity. You simply have no other instances of such a high death
rate, easily remedied, by such a small "murder cult". I repeat what I
stated above: "There is plenty of "macho" ego, regarding instruction
that no judge or jury can accomplish. There are however, plentiful
arguments that the victims deserved to die, as a Darwinian
perspective."

from:

http://www.bconnex.net/~timkayak/canoe.html

Tim


"Rick" wrote in message link.net...
wrote in message
...

Hi All,

NEWBIE INQUIRY

I've been lurking here lately (just bought a canoe) and although I have no
intentions of putting sponsons on it, I am
curious what all of the negativity is toward them and their use?

Thanks,

Malcontent


Mal,

It isn't the sponsons that are the problem, it is their advocate. Tim has a
long history of polluting this group with the same garbage and diatribes ad
infinitum. He does not respond honestly, nor truthfully, on the topic. If
you suggest that learning to paddle safely is more important than capsizing
and having to resort to some last ditch device to save your life, Tim calls
you a murderer. Nobody on this group has ever said, "no" to sponsons, or
other safety devices, they've just said a resounding "NO" to Tim. Sadly, he
doesn't understand this and posts the same garbage, makes the same claims,
and raves that we are responsible for the deaths of morons who go paddling
in conditions that are well beyond their skills.

It is more pathetic than funny, sadly.

Rick