| [home] [news] [pics] [movies] [links] [friends] [ideas] [support] [logs] |
Not one of my better ideas, but you never know if it's worth mentioning...
I happened to mention to my friend Rob that there is a place on the Concord River which rents canoes and kayaks. We got to discussing the merits of a canoe versus a kayak. One of the big differences is that you can roll a kayak over and back, sometimes even on purpose. Not something to try on your first time out on the Amazon all by yourself... He mentioned that they have training kayaks which are much, much less likely to roll on you. Trouble is, they are much, much less likely to be able to roll back upright. And unless you have help nearby (as you should if you are training) or can breathe water, you could be in some serious trouble. Which got me to thinking (which is a somewhat unpredictable thing)...
Picture yourself strapped into a kayak which has flipped over. Perhaps it is pinned against a rock. You generally have two options... right yourself or drown. If you are really lucky, there might be someone nearby to pull you out and give you CPR after pumping all the water from your lungs. If only you could breathe while underwater, you would have a much better chance. Wait a minute, people breathe while underwater all the time. No, I don't mean with scuba gear, I mean with a snorkel. Obviously a standard $4.99 snorkel set from KB Toys isn't going to do you much good unless you can breathe river mud better than water. But what if you had a tube running from just in front of you, through (or around the side of) the kayak, and out the bottom. Just enough that you could grab it and insert it in your mouth to breathe. The other end is already sticking out in the air. Voila, just calm down, catch your breathe and extricate yourself at your leisure.
Ok, so I don't know that much about snorkels, but I do realize you can't use a six foot snorkel and last very long. You don't have enough pressure to blow the carbon dioxide out the tube and get fresh oxygen. Perhaps this is infeasible for this reason. But hey, if it calms you down it could still save your life. Also, the bottom of the kayak could be impeded by water if you are pinned against a rock and not entirely upside down. Well, you're pretty much back to being screwed. But at least you tried!