I'll let Wolfgang take care of himself in your address to him, Franklin,

I think he's taken care of himself quite nicely. But until he's capable of
stating his point of view without belittling, insulting and generally
antagonizing anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him, I won't have
anything more to do with him. I know he's your friend, but... sorry.

However, there is ample evidence that
it was an artifact of some bad luck, and that the trip was well-thought
out
and equipped. Specifically:

-the guide was experienced, had 25 years professional guiding experience
and
the experience of running his own company with dozens of trips per year
for
this same school. That's much more than most trip leaders have in any
given
situation.

But... how does *past* experience guarantee that no mistakes were made on
*this* trip? I can't agree that you build up some sort of positive karma by
successfully leading previous trips. Did he do a good job over the last 25
years? Probably, and kudos to him. But that doesn't mean he didn't mess up
on *this* trip.

-the guide was well-acquainted with the kids, being their HS English
teacher, and having worked in that school with those kids for several
years.

Again, I don't see how this supports the assertion that he didn't make a
mistake.

-the ratio of guides to kids is advertised to always be at least 1:8,
which
is a very safety-minded and reasonable ratio.

That's true, I agree with you.

-the ratio of boats was 6 client boats to 1 motorized guide boat. This is
_extremely_ reasonable, in my experience.


True also.

Additionally, it appears that the guide made the judgement call to stick
to
their schedule, which would have assisted anyone seeking them in knowing
where they were. I don't know if the trip did not have a radio: at one
point
when all the other members of the trip were safely at the pontoon, the
guide
decided to send his strongest paddlers to search/rescue the other boys.
That
it was himself indicates to me that there was probably an additional trip
leader.

The first is a good point, although I would alternately argue that sometimes
you have to be willing to abandon a plan also. If the threat is immediate
and rescue is not, I might suggest that it's time to go to plan B and not
count on your rescuers to search along plan A. Why not include an inclement
weather "escape route" in your planning, rather than sticking to plan A and
hoping the rescuers will find you in time? I'm not sure I agree that his
leaving the group to fend for itself is an indication that there was an
additional trip leader.

Remember,
this was primarily a coastal cruise, with what looks like one open water
crossing to that night's campsite. Even the local enforcement folks made
mention that this one particular stretch of water had the unusual
characteristic of being shallow enough to make ocean waves steep-sided.

But this sounds like a challenging crossing for a group of beginners,
doesn't it? Something that might have made it worthwhile to have additional
safety precautions?

Anyway, at this point I think that assuming that it was negligence is a
judgement based on the thinnest of information, and is being based solely
on
the outcome. Hindsight is always 20/20, but having been in enough
situation
that have gone sour, I know that you can never prepare for ALL
possibilities, and from facts I can glean, it looks to me that this guide
and company had established enough protocols to indicate that they
probably
were not negligent, but just caught in a small series of misfortunes and
reasonable misjudgements.

That's true, and I'm not saying the guy should be hung. All I'm saying is
that a few mistakes were made, they appear to have been preventable, and
that there's a lesson to be learned; it's important to prepare for the worst
if you can, sometimes "standard" protocals need to be augmented.
Personally, that's why I like discussions like this- I think it helps all of
us learn and rethink their notions regarding safety and etc.


What would you have done differently?


Well, as you say, some of the facts of what was done are unknown so it's
hard to say specifically what I would have done differently. But I'll say
one thing; I'm not sure I would have taken a group of beginners across a
shallow open water crossing known to generate steep waves.