He did not even appear to be wearing a PFD. This is really bad news
for shareholders of Extrasport and Lotus Designs. :-(

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...falls_survivor

There's even a picture of him wearing jeans and a maroon shirt
after self-rescuing and pulling himself out of the water onto shore.
Maybe the black thing is a flotation device? Doesn't look like it.

With luck like that the guy needs to buy some lottery tickets.

On 21-Oct-2003, (Paddlec1) wrote:

With luck like that the guy needs to buy some lottery tickets.

That'l help cover the cost of lawyer and shrink.

Mike

"Bill Tuthill" wrote in message
...
He did not even appear to be wearing a PFD. This is really bad news
for shareholders of Extrasport and Lotus Designs. :-(


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...falls_survivor

There's even a picture of him wearing jeans and a maroon shirt
after self-rescuing and pulling himself out of the water onto shore.
Maybe the black thing is a flotation device? Doesn't look like it.


Hmmm, 10 out of 15 people who have attempted Niagara have made it
sucessfully. That's a lot more than I would have suspected. I guess
'unrunnable' is a bit overzealous of a rating, eh? Imagine if more of the
attempts weren't just people in a barrel, but expert river runners who could
read a good line, what the success stats would be?

I wouldn't be suprised if it were possible to create some sort of craft that
would make taking people over the falls (not helterskelter, but with a
definate line in mind, and carefully judged speed) a commercial possiblity.
Maybe even in our lifetimes; I suspect that its more do-able than we think.

--riverman

Paddlec1 wrote:

With luck like that the guy needs to buy some lottery tickets.

Yeah, reminds me of a track on a Bert & I record, where a guy tries to
commit suicide (imagine a Maine accent):

Lost all my money in the stock market last week, so I decided to
end it all. Bought a horse pistol, a gallon of gasoline, matches,
carbolic acid, and a length of rope. Went down to the river below town.
I tied one end of the rope to a stout tree branch, and the other end
around my neck. After dousing myself with gasoline, I lit a match,
and swung out over the river. I put the pistol to my head and fired.
The shot went wide, severing the rope. So I fell into the river,
dousing the flames. I swallowed so much water that I spat up all the
carbolic acid. And you know, if I hadn't been such a damn good swimmer,
I might've drowned!

riverman wrote:

Hmmm, 10 out of 15 people who have attempted Niagara have made it
sucessfully. That's a lot more than I would have suspected. I guess
'unrunnable' is a bit overzealous of a rating, eh? Imagine if more of the
attempts weren't just people in a barrel, but expert river runners who could
read a good line, what the success stats would be?

Not much better I'd imagine. I don't care how good you are at reading
lines, you're gonna have a bitch of a time navigating that sharp 90
degree turn at the bottom.

I wouldn't be suprised if it were possible to create some sort of craft that
would make taking people over the falls (not helterskelter, but with a
definate line in mind, and carefully judged speed) a commercial possiblity.
Maybe even in our lifetimes; I suspect that its more do-able than we think.

Well, if we can design a space capsule that drops into the ocean from
outer space, we can design some sort of pod that allows the passengers
to survive a drop down a waterfall. It actually doesn't even sound all
that challenging - calculate the G-forces, strap them in, deploy the
airbags, yada yada yada. But what's the point?


P.S. Is everybody sure that it wasn't a dummy that went over the falls
while the guy was strategically placed in the water at the bottom
awaiting "rescue"?

--
//-Walt
//
// The Volkl Conspiracy

Anybody get a message to Tao Berman?

riverman wrote:
"Bill Tuthill" wrote in message
...

He did not even appear to be wearing a PFD. This is really bad news
for shareholders of Extrasport and Lotus Designs. :-(



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...falls_survivor

There's even a picture of him wearing jeans and a maroon shirt
after self-rescuing and pulling himself out of the water onto shore.
Maybe the black thing is a flotation device? Doesn't look like it.



Hmmm, 10 out of 15 people who have attempted Niagara have made it
sucessfully. That's a lot more than I would have suspected. I guess
'unrunnable' is a bit overzealous of a rating, eh? Imagine if more of the
attempts weren't just people in a barrel, but expert river runners who could
read a good line, what the success stats would be?

I wouldn't be suprised if it were possible to create some sort of craft that
would make taking people over the falls (not helterskelter, but with a
definate line in mind, and carefully judged speed) a commercial possiblity.
Maybe even in our lifetimes; I suspect that its more do-able than we think.

--riverman

"Walt" wrote in message
...
P.S. Is everybody sure that it wasn't a dummy that went over the falls
while the guy was strategically placed in the water at the bottom
awaiting "rescue"?


What an interesting idea for a story: some guy is exploring along the bottom
of the falls, loses his footing and slips into the water right near shore
and quickly drags himself back out. When he gets up and looks around, he is
swarmed by rescue personnel who say stuff like "wow, are you alright?" and
"holy cow, I can't believe you're alive!"

--riverman

On 22-Oct-2003, Walt wrote:

Not much better I'd imagine. I don't care how good you are at reading
lines, you're gonna have a bitch of a time navigating that sharp 90
degree turn at the bottom.

Assuming you miss the rocks...

Then you've got a keeper that can hang on to you for hours... or longer.

Mike

He was obviously wearing sponsons. He took them off at the bottom...
they are currently floating down the St Lawrence Seaway waiting for the
next life to save.

GRIN

Ed
--
The spam finally got to me.
To email me, change "spam" to "speak"