NYCkayaker Swim Support

[bonnie13 at earthlink.net]

Hi - I was going to stay out of this as I think people have been expressing their concerns & frustrations pretty well & it's the same set as we've been seeing here for years. 

But Paul mentioned my name, I was at that dinner, it did happen the way he described it - 

Beyond that, though, I did have a very specific swim where things got weird, so I'll talk about that one. 

I'd volunteered to be the kayak coordinator for I think it was the Park to Park Swim. We were all meeting at the downtown boathouse. It was a very ugly day weatherwise; I paddled down with huge black clouds over Jersey. Got there to find that no one at the DTBH wanted to get on the water (understandably). Called Morty to let him know no kayaks. He was fine with that. First storm blew through, quite a good one, we waited it out inside. Still big black clouds over Jersey after that one blew through but I decided to try to nip back up to Pier 63 before the next one. Some of the motorboats had been staged down there, though, and when I saw one of them heading north for 79th st. I decided to just hitch a ride up to see what was going on at the starting line - feeling sure it was going to be a no-go but still feeling like as the kayak coordinator I had a responsibility to at least turn up to see what was going on. 

I think John McGarvey was the only other kayaker there. It was a small group of swimmers as these things go, but there were a couple dozen anyways, and I really didn't know how the two of us were going to keep all of them on course & out from the pilings & piers. For those who haven't done one of the races, the way the kayaks usually work for the shorter races is the paddlers split into 2 groups & form a cordon along the outside of the course  & another along the pierhead line, just to herd swimmers who are going off course back onto the course - the bulk of the swimmers go fine but there are always some who want to go to Jersey & some who want to go spelunking under the docks. 2 kayaks don't constitute a cordon. The powerboats form a line outside the outer line of kayaks, but they can't turn a wayward swimmer back on course like a kayak can. Plus there were more huge black clouds piling up over Jersey. I didn't like it at all. Morty didn't ask for opinions, though, he was just going to start it, but then the weather alert signal started on the VHF. At that point the powerboat skippers made their own call & left. 

At that point Morty called the race. I was so relieved. 

I complained afterwards but more to the point, I think it was around that time that I cut down my swim support to the MIMS (that one, you always know that the swimmer to kayak to motorboat ratio is going to be one to one to one, no unpleasant surprises at the starting line). 

The swimmers were great, I swam one or two myself & I miss doing it (I really really should join CIBBOWS), but that one just sort of spooked me.

There was another race I did that turned awful, one of the swimmers had a heart attack, but that time everything worked exactly the way it way supposed to and although it remains one of my worst boating memories, I do think that there wasn't anything any of us who attended to him could have done to change the outcome.  

Just a reminder though that sometimes in these races, someone's life could potentially end up in your hands, even though you're not really supposed to be there as a lifeguard. I think everybody who does the swims is aware of that, and I think that's part of why feelings about how the kayakers are treated run so high. 

That's all I've got to say. 

 

 






-----Original Message-----
>From: TomBrooklyn <tombrook11232 at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Jun 30, 2008 11:58 PM
>To: nyckayaker at rockandwater.net
>Subject: Re: NYCkayaker Anyone doing this Sunday's Governors Island Swim	Support
>
>> > From: Paul PAZ764 at aol.com