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Wilko

wrote:

It certainly seems you are much, much safer if you can stay in the
boat, and to remain motivated to stay in the boat some form of
snorkel/air tube could certainly help -- and this is just an obvious
and trivial $3 bit of plastic. It could be standard equipment on ww
kayaks.

We're talking class V white water in this case, with a pretty decent
volume of water in the case of Charlie's hole at that day. I don't
believe for one moment that you can stay upside down in your boat in
that hole and still breathe through a snorkel. You're being tossed
around violently and there is a lot of water being poured on top of you.

I can think of plenty of similar situations where the water is moving so
violently that even being able to hold the pipe of the snorkel above the
surface is not possible. Besides, considering that it's probably not
possible for your buddies to get to you (without taking an enormous risk
themselves) and with you being unable to see what they are doing, a
rescue effort from shore can be a daunting challenge.

IIRC a very good U.S. boater swam out of Charlie's hole shortly before
Scott died there... He obviously didn't see an alternative, if he wasn't
forced out of his boat by the water. Staying in your boat isn't always
an option!

I've yet to come across a situation where having a snorkel would make a
difference on someone being in trouble on whitewater. That definitely
makes me skeptical about always carrying one around for such a very rare
eventuality. I think that the Dragorossi approach might work better, but
even there one can question the effectiveness of such a device in
violently moving whitewater.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/