There was a kayaker drown in the river in front of my house today. This is my personal story of what happened.
It was about 4:00pm when my wife called me from the garage. An older man in wet cloths had just walked up from the river and told my wife that his friend had just drown in the river and was dead. She immediately called "911" and I jumped onto my 4 wheeler to see if I could render help. I got to the spot in about 2 minutes to find a Yellow kayak lodged in the branches of a fallen tree. There was no sight of the drown man. I searched down stream and found the drown kayaker, still with his life vest on, lodged in some brush about 50 yards down stream. About that time the emergency people showed up and recovered the body.
The water in the river was about 2 feet higher than normal due to recent heavy rains, so I waited a couple of days before I recovered the kayak and other equipment. I took that opportunity with my chain saw to remove the fallen tree and investigate what may have caused the drowning. Here is what I found.
There were two kayakers. The first got passed the downed tree, but the following kayaker did not. He was following the first kayakers a short distance behind and a little to the right. As he tried to paddle to the left toward the opening, the fast current pushed his kayak into the fallen tree sideways. I found the oar lodged cross ways between the kayak and the tree where the kayaker appears to have used it at the last minute to try to push off the fallen tree. Pushing on the tree tended to turn the kayak over with the kayaker's right hand going into the water. The pressure from the fast moving water then tended to continue to rotate the kayak such that the kayaker's head was forced under water placing him upside down still in the kayak. The fact that he had his life vest on while his torso was under water tended to force him upward into the kayak preventing any type of fast exit from the flooded kayak. He had to have been exhausted and drown quickly. Over time the action of the water pulled his body out of the kayak and floated it down stream where I found it.
My reason for writing this blog is to pass along important observations about kayaks on fast moving water. I am certainly have heart felt compassion for the kayaker and his family. If you notice, the promotion of kayaks stresses how maneuverable they are, but this is always shown on calm waters. They stress training on how to right an upside down kayak, but this too is always shown in calm waters. In a rapid flowing stream or when lodged in an obstruction, it can be very difficult to exit a kayak quickly. In this situation a kayak appears to be less safe than a standard canoe. The other thing is that when a kayak is paddles aggressively, it tends "spin" while it "slides" crossways in the direction of the current. Given that when the current is faster than the paddled kayak, it tends to end up hitting obstacles crossways as in this case. I think that kayakers tend to get over confident in their control of their kayaks due the better performance in the calmer water ahead of the much faster moving water around an obstacle. I also think that kayaks are designed to perform well in calm water at the expense of needed performance in fast current emergencies like this one.
One other point. I also recovered a large flotation cushion that could have made it more comfortable for the kayaker, but made it more difficult to exit the kayak in the emergency. There was also a rope tied to the front of the kayak which was about 25 feet long and lose in the water. I do not know if it snagged on anything or contributed to the drowning.
It was about 4:00pm when my wife called me from the garage. An older man in wet cloths had just walked up from the river and told my wife that his friend had just drown in the river and was dead. She immediately called "911" and I jumped onto my 4 wheeler to see if I could render help. I got to the spot in about 2 minutes to find a Yellow kayak lodged in the branches of a fallen tree. There was no sight of the drown man. I searched down stream and found the drown kayaker, still with his life vest on, lodged in some brush about 50 yards down stream. About that time the emergency people showed up and recovered the body.
The water in the river was about 2 feet higher than normal due to recent heavy rains, so I waited a couple of days before I recovered the kayak and other equipment. I took that opportunity with my chain saw to remove the fallen tree and investigate what may have caused the drowning. Here is what I found.
There were two kayakers. The first got passed the downed tree, but the following kayaker did not. He was following the first kayakers a short distance behind and a little to the right. As he tried to paddle to the left toward the opening, the fast current pushed his kayak into the fallen tree sideways. I found the oar lodged cross ways between the kayak and the tree where the kayaker appears to have used it at the last minute to try to push off the fallen tree. Pushing on the tree tended to turn the kayak over with the kayaker's right hand going into the water. The pressure from the fast moving water then tended to continue to rotate the kayak such that the kayaker's head was forced under water placing him upside down still in the kayak. The fact that he had his life vest on while his torso was under water tended to force him upward into the kayak preventing any type of fast exit from the flooded kayak. He had to have been exhausted and drown quickly. Over time the action of the water pulled his body out of the kayak and floated it down stream where I found it.
My reason for writing this blog is to pass along important observations about kayaks on fast moving water. I am certainly have heart felt compassion for the kayaker and his family. If you notice, the promotion of kayaks stresses how maneuverable they are, but this is always shown on calm waters. They stress training on how to right an upside down kayak, but this too is always shown in calm waters. In a rapid flowing stream or when lodged in an obstruction, it can be very difficult to exit a kayak quickly. In this situation a kayak appears to be less safe than a standard canoe. The other thing is that when a kayak is paddles aggressively, it tends "spin" while it "slides" crossways in the direction of the current. Given that when the current is faster than the paddled kayak, it tends to end up hitting obstacles crossways as in this case. I think that kayakers tend to get over confident in their control of their kayaks due the better performance in the calmer water ahead of the much faster moving water around an obstacle. I also think that kayaks are designed to perform well in calm water at the expense of needed performance in fast current emergencies like this one.
One other point. I also recovered a large flotation cushion that could have made it more comfortable for the kayaker, but made it more difficult to exit the kayak in the emergency. There was also a rope tied to the front of the kayak which was about 25 feet long and lose in the water. I do not know if it snagged on anything or contributed to the drowning.
