Near Misses make the best stories

Yesterday I saw an e mail asking for someone to help lead a Duke of Edinburgh Gold group. Someone else had responded by the time I had cleared the weekend. The leader still invited me to go as it would be great to share the group. It was one of my favourite stretches of white water, the upper river Wye. The Wye and Usk Foundation are a charity that manage the two rivers. They work hard to build the stocks of salmon, trout and coarse fish. I phoned the administrator Angela, to check the access situation. She said that there was a right of navigation below Hay and an access point at Glasbury. From March 15th there was no access above Glasbury. The only exception was if the river level was above the red line on the depth gauge at Erwood. I packed my boat and camping stuff for the 100 mile journey. Early the next morning I phoned the organiser to ask whether he had checked the access situation. It was news to him as he assumed that canoeists had the right to paddle the river. I disagreed and said that I probably would not come. It left me with a dilemna. If we took a group of young people on water that pushed their abilities, what if something happened? Where would we stand with insurance liability? Their parents would show us no sympathy if, for instance, one of them suffered a head injury. The insurance company might claim that we were paddling water that had no rights of access, therefore we were not covered. The leader was prepared to follow his understanding of the Welsh Canoeing Associaton guideline: paddle anyway and be polite to fishermen. What kind of example would we set to the young people? Given all of these questions I decided not to go on two grounds. One is is safety; another is the example that we set to young people. 

Later in the day I thought, well the canoe is on the car so I might as well use it. However there is a snag. None of the rivers that I normally paddle have an access agreement. My wife suggested Derbyshire but I cannot think of anywhere where I could go for a last minute paddle. Over 90% of the rivers in England and Wales are denied to canoeists between March and October. Is there a difference between a quiet paddle on our own and leading a group down water with lots of fun and some risk? I think that there is a difference.

This evening I checked the webcam at Erwood for the river Wye. At 8 am it had been above the gauge; by 12 noon it had dipped below the gauge. Does that mean that having driven 100 miles I could have paddled from 8 am to 12 pm but had to leave the water for the afternoon? No, because canoeists are only allowed on the river between 10 am and 4 pm. The situation for river access is heavily weighted in favour of anglers but note this: the close season for coarse fishing starts on 15th March. That should give us 3 months of uninterrupted paddling until 16th June. It does not, because coarse fish are thought to be spawning & the trout and salmon season has started. I am a fisherman & a canoeist. As a fisherman I find a canoe to be a fantastic way of reaching swims that are not normally accessible. In the winter I cut branches that block the river, remove fishing tackle and trim back nuisance branches. Most of the fishermen in Scotland have a different attitude to those in England and Wales. Paddling once on the Tweed, the river that straddles the border we passed a ghillie and his client. He ran towards me gesticulating wildly after I had shot a natural weir in their swim. I stopped a little puzzled. Seeing that I had a bowsaw in my boat he asked if I could cut a troublesome branch that was sticking up out of the water. Reaching deep down I cut the branch below water level. It would have needed a JCB to remover. Now what disturbed the fish more. The ghillie & his client were so delighted that they showed us a beautiful place to camp in the grounds of a stately home.

Fisherman might rightly argue that they pay good money for sections of river or beats, that allow them to quietly search for the fish. In comparison canoeists pay a nominal sum to a national body. Canoeists might argue that they would respect access agreements if they were fair. In Belgium for instance there is a rule that canoeists paddle between certain times. That keeps the hire companies with their inexperienced groups off the water at key times. 

Coming back to the safety issue. My memory of group canoeing and of Duke of Edinburgh trips is that unless the preparation is done very carefully, anything that could go wrong does go wrong, not just to trainees. Four times I personally have suffered hypothermia. Once I rescued a tipsy sea kayaker who fell out of his boat. The "victim" was rushed off in a Landrover to a warm bath and rehydration. I was left on the beach in my swimming trunks and cagoule at that stage beyond shivering. On two other occasions I was taking part in canoeing assessments as a leader. On one more occasion I had completed the four star assessment run by a hard taskmaster off the coast of the Orkney Islands where we used to live. 

Another experience of things going wrong was on a walking trip. As a gold assessor I took an independent role to the groups. However I made it clear to the supervisor that I was not happy with the route that the gold groups intended to take. It involved a traverse of huge scree slopes the day that snow melted, loosening the rocks & boulders. We comprimised in that I guided the boys group, the girls took a lower level route. Half way through the day I had to find a way down a particularly steep boulder strewn slope. I asked the boys not to follow me if it was too steep. They could not see an alternative route so they followed me. Boulders dislodged from their boots. I saw them flying down and took evasive action. One boulder bounced sideways and struck me on the back of the head. That started the longest fall of my life. I bounced an estimated 350 feet down the mountain in Austria 2000 metres above sea level. Miraculously despite a large gash in my head and knee and extensive grazing I broke no bones. The first aid training instinctively came into play, full body scan, stop the bleeding, reassure the group and call for a helicopter. The boys were great and I made a good recovery even though it took 2 years of living to win back my strength. 

Risk assessment always asks the question, "What if?" What if a young person had been almost killed? What if we had taken them into a situation way beyond their competence? What if the press got hold of the story? What if our insurance did not cover us? 

The experiences have made me cautious about taking risks. Possible litigation is a big issue. Balanced against that we must allow young people to make decisions, push themselves, prove their resources, care for each other and enjoy an adventure with a limited degree of risk. I would value the thoughts of others who have had to face similar circumstances.