I clicked on this article because it just so happens that the subject "Safety Tips for Families Rafting with Small Kids" is a subject that I was considering submitting to an E-zine. I figured I might get some ideas or learn something I had not considered since I do not have any small children of my own.
The second of the promised five tips derailed me. Honestly? A 'life rope' connecting your child to the raft while on moving water? This is dumbest idea imaginable --- and I am being kind.
NEVER attach yourself, your child, your dog or your worst enemy to a boat in moving water. You are setting yourself up for disaster. Lines and moving water do not mix well. Entanglement issues are the first thing that comes to mind. And, if the child has a line attached to them, and they are tethered to the raft, it isn't only the child who is at risk of an errant line in the event the raft capsizes, or if the child falls overboard on the side of the raft opposite where they are 'tethered'.
The idea is to minimize lines on a raft and to complicate the issue by leashing your kid is ludicrous and dangerous.
A PFD with a crotch strap is advisable, a grab loop just large enough for a hand is advisable on one of the thwarts, walking the child around hazardous rapids is advisable, having them just ride and not paddle is advisable, making sure they are in a raft rowed by a competent guide is advisable. . . but connecting them in any way to the craft is negligence. Pure and simple. http://orionexp.com
Jim Fielder was, as they say, larger than life. The former middle school teacher, beloved by many, and former white water rafting outfitter , envied by even more, lost his life recently due to poor electrical wiring and a flash fire. He lived on Queen Anne hill in a house handed down to him by his mother. The Queen Anne News reported that he was also a former screenwriter and novelist of true crime stories. I know he had published a book or two, and I know he wrote an insightful article about Mary Kay Letourneau for a women's magazine, but I don't know if I would characterize anyone who has been published as being 'former'. Once a writer, always a writer. Jim Fielder owned Zig Zag River Runners from the late 70s through the early 90s, and that is how I know him. But the last time I saw him, he was haunting a Queen Anne coffeehouse, absorbing information and scheming about subject matter you could sink your teeth into. He was long past his white water outf
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