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National Safe Boating Council
Life jackets should be standard gear in a boat.
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Hilary Bulger
Meyers Beach in Wisconsin is a popular point of departure for kayakers, who can get paddling advice and local weather information through the new Paddle Smart teams at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
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National Safe Boating Council
Kayakers, so exposed and low in the water, need to be especially cautious on the Big Lake.
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NOAA
A powerful rip current can sweep even strong swimmers hundreds of feet from shore. Instead of fruitlessly fighting the current, ride with it and escape by swimming parallel to shore.
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Minnesota Sea Grant
At the beach, check for warning flags, which are used to notify swimmers about rough surf and strong rip currents.
Tim Slattery was a third-generation resident of Duluth’s Park Point, a well-liked photographer and a Lake Superior Magazine contributor who was a regular in the harbor. “Everybody knew him,” says Sue Slattery, his wife.
Everyone was also acutely aware of his passion for safety, she says. “He believed in always wearing a life jacket for small craft, kayaking, canoeing, any small pleasure boat. He would chase people in the harbor to tell them to get their life jackets on if they were in a small vessel.”
But on October 23, 2003, when he fell from his 14-foot boat while photographing vessels in the harbor, Tim wasn’t wearing a life jacket. No one knows why. Weighed down by his clothing, he slipped under the water before nearby vessels could respond. He was 52.
“He studied safety, he practiced safety, but even with all that, whether you’re a strong swimmer and you know all the safety rules in boating, it can happen if you’re not prepared,” Sue says. “And it can happen to anyone.”
Lapses in judgment on Lake Superior – no matter how savvy the boater or user – can turn fatal. The fresh water, less buoyant than a salty ocean, can pull under even strong swimmers if they’re weighed down by heavy wet clothing. Add to that frigid temperatures that can induce hypothermia in less than 30 minutes and weather that can change swiftly and unexpectedly.
The dangers should not mean avoiding fun in and on the Big Lake. Proper precautions can rein in perilous situations, keeping boaters safe and allowing for a worry-free day.
Quite simply, water safety starts with a life jacket, says Rachel Johnson, communications director for the National Safe Boating Council. The statistics back her up. Of the 758 people who died in 2011 from U.S. recreational boating accidents, 70 percent drown and of those, Rachel says, “84 percent didn’t have a life jacket on” – a potential lifesaver.
Similarly in Ontario, 71 percent of those who drowned or died by hypothermia from 1991-2008 weren’t wearing a life jacket.
Being out on open water is not the only time to wear a life jacket; they can be lifesavers even on frozen waters and should always be worn when crossing ice on a snowmobile, dog sled, skis or when ice fishing. Since ice stability can be difficult to gauge – a foot thick in one spot may thin to inches just a few feet away – a flotation device and ice picks should always be ready. Picks can help a person pull up out of the water and back onto the ice.
In January this year, Jim Hudson, a well-known fishing guide in Bayfield, Wisconsin, perished after falling through ice on Chequamegon Bay on his snowmobile. Like Tim, Jim was known for his caution and was an advocate of flotation aids on all snowmobiles. Yet he wasn’t wearing or carrying flotation that day.
In February, two more local snowmobilers went through thin ice and drowned near Madeline Island.
Another way to be safer on the water is to become educated.
Boating safety courses, like those offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary or the U.S. Power Squadron, give boaters the skills to be safe. Again, the statistics prove it: Of all U.S. boating deaths in 2011, only 11 percent occurred on boats operated by someone with safety instruction.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Apostle Islands Flotilla is one of several units around Lake Superior to offer such courses. The islands are popular with kayakers, so the flotilla in the spring gives a Paddlesports America class for novices, who may not be aware of the Big Lake’s dangers.
“Weather conditions can change very rapidly, and the training that you need and equipment that you need is different,” says Bill Gover, the flotilla commander. “It’s a whole different breed of cat.”
On Lake Superior, paddlers should use a longer sea kayak and wear a wet or dry suit to stave off hypothermia, he advises. In 40° F water, the Lake’s average temperature, a swimmer without a suit may black out after 30 minutes. When water temperature drops to near freezing, the victim could lose consciousness in 15 minutes, reports Minnesota Sea Grant.
Paddle Smart teams, a collaboration between the Coast Guard, its auxiliary and the National Park Service, watch over the Apostle Islands’ Little Sand Bay and Meyers Beach, offering information to kayakers during paddling season.
“We want to make sure they’re aware of the conditions,” Bill says. “It can be safe if it’s done properly with the right equipment.”
The program debuted Memorial Day 2011 after years with a spate of paddler deaths. Since then just one kayak fatality has been recorded – a kayaker who capsized in 4-foot waves and succumbed to hypothermia in June 2011 when his group departed for Sand Island despite rangers’ warnings and a small craft advisory.
Last year, the Paddle Smart teams talked to more than 7,000 kayakers, Bill says. Calls for help from paddlers dropped nearly to zero in 2012, according to the Coast Guard unit in Bayfield.
The first rule remains the same: The Lake is boss. Respecting it, wearing the right gear and learning proper skills will keep everyone safer – a fitting memorial to good people like Tim and Jim.