14 y.o. beginners, open tandem canoe, no immersion clothing, paddling
open
58-60 degree water, on a day with high off-shore winds forecast. It
takes
a very kind heart to find "reasonable" in that, and I appreciate your
trying, but it's hard for me to do so.

Why weren't you there? Sounds like criminal negligence to me. Please
post
your address and daytime phone number.

Wolfgang

I've been following this discussion for a couple of days, and I really wish
I could understand where you're coming from with this line of thought. From
your response above and the one you made to Brian, I get the impression that
you think anyone who believes this was a preventable tragedy is just being
stupid. Am I correct? Why are you taking shots at these people?? Or are
you saying that anyone who wasn't there should be silent? I don't buy that
either. Personally, I would rather debate all the issues associated with a
fatality and possibly learn (or teach) something that would maybe prevent
something similar from happening in the future, than not say anything and
tacitly accept the deaths of kids like this as just being part of the game.

If Steve's description of the circumstances is correct, I have to agree with
him- the guide, however qualified he might be, appears to have made an error
which resulted in the death of these children. It's one thing to take
risks, and I would agree that to live life insulated from risk is not a good
thing. But the risks I take in my life are ones that I assume for myself.
Fourteen year old beginners like this are not in a position to assume risk
on their own, they are at the mercy of the people who lead them. And it
sure looks to me like these kids were led wrong. I seriously doubt that in
the last moments of their lives they were thinking thoughts like "well, I
took a risk and now I'm going to die, but I leave this life happy, knowing I
lived life to the fullest!" They were probably terrified because they never
dreamed that a simple paddle on the water could end up killing them. Unless
I'm really missing something, these kids were depending on the guide to
impart to them the risks they were assuming and to protect them, and he let
them down.

To be honest, I wasn't really bothered by this event when I read the initial
post, but your responses in the vein above have convinced me that there
*was* negligence.