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6.25.07
Paddlers Fight Kayak Bill
A Massachusetts bill might discourage kayakers from taking
lessons.
by
Dan Mathers
Kayak
advocates are asking paddlers to oppose a Massachusetts bill
that they say would hurt kayak lessons in the state.
The Kayak Safety Bill, filed by state representative William
Strauss (D – Mattapoisett), would require kayakers to wear life
jackets year-round, and to carry a whistle and a compass. It
would also require kayak instructors to have students flip their
kayaks to perform a wet exit before students can go out on the
water to learn other aspects of kayaking.
But kayak advocates say the bill’s wet exit provision will cause
novice paddlers who are afraid of flipping their boat to avoid
taking lessons altogether, thereby undermining the intent of the
bill by having fewer educated kayakers.
“It’s going to have exactly the opposite effect,” says Julie
Martin, who is the lead kayak instructor and manager of the
kayak shop for Goose Hummock
in Orleans, Massachusetts. “What they are trying to do is going
to discourage a lot of people from taking lessons.”
The bill was filed in the wake of two highly-publicized kayaking
accidents. In one, a Mattapoisett man died in a kayak accident
during a training course. During the course, the instructor had
verbally explained a wet exit, but not required students to
perform one. In the other accident, two women drowned while
kayaking off Chatham in October 2003. Neither was wearing a life
jacket.
But making a wet exit mandatory will scare off a lot of people
from lessons, says Martin. Many novice paddlers she has talked
with tell her they would rather not take a lesson if they have
to flip their boat.
Martin says she usually begins lessons on dry land, teaching
students the basics of boat control and getting them
comfortable. Then she moves them into a water lesson. By the
end, she says, she is lucky to get 50 percent of students to
flip their boats. “After three hours of trusting you, they
might do it,” she says. “People are really afraid of tipping
over their boats.”
Overall, the bill is not thought out well, Martin says. She
takes exception with the wording that targets only kayaks, but
ignores other paddle boats like canoes. She wonders what good
requiring a compass will do when most paddlers don’t know how to
use one and won’t have a map with them. She agrees with
requiring life jackets and a whistle. But, she points out, a law
is already in place that requires kayakers wear a life jacket
from September 15 to May 15, and the two women who died in the
accident were not wearing life jackets in October, violating
that law.
Mark Jacobson, the manager of
Charles River Canoe
and Kayak in Newton, Massachusetts, says the bill’s sponsors
created it mostly looking at the two accidents instead of
getting extensive input from the Coast Guard and the paddling
community. Legislators need to get more input from those groups
to make the bill work, says Jacobson, especially since many
legislators don’t know much about kayaking. He points out that
at a recent meeting of the Committee on Public Safety and
Homeland Security, which is discussing the bill, many committee
members did not know what a spray skirt is.
But, he says, this is where paddlers can help. He says
Massachusetts kayakers should contact their representatives by
e-mail, and then follow up with a phone call. Often legislators
say they will pass a caller’s opinions on to the committee. But
callers should ask the legislator what his or her opinion of the
bill is and ask what information they need or questions they
have about kayaking.
For information on how to contact members of the
Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, click here.
For information on all Massachusetts state legislators, visit
the General Court homepage.
(Let us know what you think about the Kayak Safety Bill. Drop
us an
e-mail about it.)
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