On May 6, 2016, Bryan Orrio and Kelley McCallum bought two Old Town Trip 10 recreational kayaks from Dick’s Sporting Goods in Salem, Oregon. They headed for the Mehama run on the nearby North Santiam River, a stretch I know well.
Lots went wrong.
Orrio and McCallum claim the salesperson removed flotation foam from the bows, believing it was packing material. The two rec boats were on a class II whitewater run. The paddlers were inexperienced enough to refer to their paddles as “oars.”
Claiming injury from capsizing and wrestling the boats to shore, the pair sued Dick’s Sporting Goods for $455,000. Regardless of the outcome, the aquatic and legal kerfuffle is a warning about a possible future of kayaking. As paddling becomes increasing popular and mainstream, there will be more novices. Kayaks will be more readily available. But the water won’t get any more beginner or rec-boat friendly than it is now. The risks are apparent, and they raise old questions anew. What are the responsibilities of outfitters, paddlers and groups? What’s the right balance of safety and independence? When should we own it and admit we’re doofuses who got in over our heads?
When I descended the Grand Canyon, we asked the outfitter what skill level they required for renting their rafts. The answer? “A valid credit card.” They just rented equipment, and if we got into trouble or wrecked our gear, that was on us.
On the other hand, one local kayak shop I know won’t rent kayaks until the people have taken a basic class. I once arranged an out-of-town rental and was quizzed relentlessly about the rescue hierarchy. My local paddling clubs each have different takes on responsibility. One says that it’s the organizer’s job to get people to the put-in, but the participant’s responsibility to get down the river. Another asks the organizer to vet participants, assess conditions, skills and equipment, which can keep people from wanting to lead trips. Everyone has waivers. Nobody reads them.
Increasingly, kayaks are sold at big box retailers like Dick’s. Once the domain of specialist outfitters with in-depth knowledge of technique and waterways, buying a kayak can now be like buying a cordless drill at Home Depot or a car at the local dealership. It’s up to you not to put a hole in your thumb or drive into a tree.
But driving and drills are regulated. We test for driving licenses. Car safety is set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport Canada. There’s no test for the cordless drill, but novice craftspeople intuitively know not to put the drill against their hands. Novice paddlers don’t know to edge down current, or to edge at all. On that Mehama run, I’ve bailed out plenty of drunk summer floaters in inflatable pool toys and retrieved many a yard-sale beer cooler.
Nobody goes kayaking for the safety talks or regulations. We go to relish the freedom, self-reliance, and shared competence of navigating water that doesn’t care a whit about whether it’s safe for us or not. And when the same people who sell kayaks also sell softball bats, lacrosse sticks and soccer cleats, we’ll inevitably have salespeople who don’t know what kayaks are appropriate for class II or why there’s foam in the bow.
If folks are going to progress deeper into paddling, self-reliance and good judgment will help far more than rules and regulations.
These are the growing pains of kayaking’s success. If drills were only sold at a few boutique hardware stores in each city, we’d have a lot fewer people making cool stuff in their garages. We’re headed for a paddling community that is larger, and largely clueless. We could limit who can sell, buy, rent or paddle kayaks. We could ban boats without fore and aft bulkheads or float bags. We could up our game to educate everyone involved. We could do all three. Or we could accept capsizes as part of the learning process, a rite of passage like a kid’s scraped knees from the first bicycle crash without training wheels. Of course, when the kids in question are middle-aged and one’s the former County Deputy District Attorney—Orrio in this lawsuit—chances are we’ll have some lawsuits as well as stories at the pub afterward.
My bow points firmly toward education and self-reliance. Paddling is one of the last bastions of nature following its own rules. It’s survived like this from Inuit seal hunters, the advent of guided trips, helicopter parenting, and the Facebook era’s free-for-all social media groups. Climbing has the rock gym, skiing has lifts, grooming, and out-of-bounds rules. Kayaking, a few whitewater parks aside, is still just humans and the elements with no intermediaries. If folks are going to progress deeper into paddling, self-reliance and good judgment will help far more than rules and regulations. Yes, retailers should know the basics, like what flotation foam is for, and whether a recreational boat belongs on whitewater. And so should any buyer with a web browser.
Edward Abbey, one of my childhood heroes, wrote that the right to get lost, sunburnt, stranded or eaten by bears is the right and privilege of any free American. I haven’t been eaten by bears (yet), but my favorite childhood memories are paddling a canoe with just me and my sister or a childhood friend in the boat at the age of eight. And when things go downhill? As that venerable BCU five-star Jedi named Yoda once told a struggling two-star candidate named Luke Skywalker, “The greatest teacher, failure is.”
Or, as my friend Karl, who’s taller and doesn’t live on a swamp planet, says, “The environment is often the best teacher.” More drysuits, fewer lawsuits.
Neil Schulman loves the North Santiam River, especially the stretch from Packsaddle to Mill City, just a bit above the run in question. As of this writing, the lawsuit is awaiting discovery and a dispute resolution report.
Skills and rescue training is the best way to prevent an on-water accident. At a TRAK Kayak Surf Camp weekend in Ucluelet, British Columbia, paddlers learn to read the swell and recognize safe zones, which allows them to “enjoy and play in this area of the coast,” says photographer Jaime Sharp.
| Photo: Jamie Sharp
As a specialty retailer, I have nothing I would correct here. Neil is spot on.
The one caveat (and it hurts me to say it), but that the victim usually isn’t the casualty, it’s the ones left behind that suffer. I was on a guided trip years ago, and the leader knew I was an experienced trip leader. One of the clients on the trip was not listening, and was an arrogant successful multimillionaire (just ask him), and since he was richer, he was obviously smarter than everyone, including the guides. She asked me if I would just hang back and a keep an eye on him, and I said I would be happy to.
He continued to ignore instructions: approach wildlife (sea lions), approaching icebergs, etc. I was polite and told him that the guides asked us not to do those things for our own safety. His response was a haughty “Well, you’re not in charge.” I told him that what he said was true, but then I said this in my best guide voice.
“Look, I’m not your guide, and frankly I couldn’t give a s**t if you die. The problem is then we have to deal with your body, call a helicopter, and the company gets to call your wife and explain you died from being an idiot, and how would she like to collect your body. I am not asking you to obey the rules because I care about you; I am asking because I care about your wife.”
After that things improved.
Education is the key. The question is who’s going to convince people they need it? It’s what they don’t know that they don’t know that kills them. If they’re not willing to educate customers, retailers have no business selling boats. This could be as simple as a fact sheet at a minimum. And train staff not to remove “packing material.”
If you haven’t had the proper kayaking lessons to know and inshore your own abilities you shouldn’t be on the water. I did many years ago fall in love with a certain beautiful kayak at a well known sporting store. I honestly because liked the looks of this kayak almost bought and the salesman asked what I wanted to do with it well I was planning on getting a new kayak to paddle from Ct to Block Island and the salesman told me this kayak would be perfect for achieving that. Luckily I did not buy I went home and looked it up and if I had bought that kayak it would have been a disaster. I did make the trip but not in that kayak and my advice to anyone on the water get lessons , know what skills you actually have and check out any kayak you buy and paddle it on a trial before you buy to make sure it’s the right boat you can handle even if planning just putting around a pond or small lake before you buy. It’s your life not a store salesman who will sell you anything. Always wear a PFD and hopefully no matter what you know how to swim. I’ve seen many buying boats at places like Dicks and other places where the person is small with a wide kayak struggling back and forth side to side just striving a to wide kayak or a big guy squeezing into a kayak obviously to small for them. Your life your responsibility not some sales person. Just my thoughts I’ve been paddling safe for over 40 years.